Valeside, West Street, Somerton. Somerset TAJ I 7PS
(ZZAP!64 Christmas Special 1985 page 96)
Out of university a friend of mine got a job with Future Publishing. This news sent me in to a bit of a tailspin and I had an odd couple of days where it felt like my friend was living the life that should have been mine; as if I was a character in Stephen King short story. It taught me an unwanted lesson in maturity, how to be pleased for someone while, hopefully, also not giving away that I was seething with jealousy. I visited Bath several times and I remember a sense of being split. There was the me seeing my friend and having a lovely time, and the me underneath trying to work out how to turn those trips into a job. At the end of each of these weekends I'd stand on platform two at Bath Spa station and look out across the town and affirm "I'm coming back". And I did. But only as a tourist.
It's now been something like 20 years since my last visit (not counting a slightly nightmarish trip through the Bath outskirts when Google maps took me that way as part of my route to Taunton for Durell). This time I came by train, like I used to, and on the stairs down from the platform I suddenly remembered how I used to walk down them while trying to imagine how I would feel on the day I used them to walk towards my new job.
This isn't the me psychotherapy blog, it's supposed to be about Future Publishing. Let's rewind to the start of my journey at Paddington Station. I'd missed my intended train and had half an hour to kill owing to a delay which can be blamed equally on the failure of a connecting train and my own laziness. I could make this article read much more professionally by pretending I went into WH Smith with the intent of researching the current state of the magazine market, but I didn't. It was that or join the queue for Cafe Nero.
I finally found the magazines relegated to a distant corner at the back of the shop. A far cry from the days when newspapers and magazines were in prime position as the first thing you saw on entering. Although the fact that:
A) This was the first time I've been in WH Smith for almost a year.
B) I didn't buy anything.
Perhaps goes some way to explain both the decline of the magazine section and recent news stories about the future of WH Smith. The front of the shop was now for selling bears dressed as Beefeaters, and not Paddington like you might expect. When I found the magazine section, I couldn't spot a single computer title which surprised me because for a long time I considered it to be the beating heart of WH Smith and indeed Future Publishing, because that's how they got started.
Chris Anderson set up Future Publishing in the summer of 1985. He had just been fired from Newsfield Publications and, more specifically, ZZAP!64, the Commodore 64 magazine he launched. Chris Anderson had been editor of PERSONAL COMPUTER GAMES which closed down after the February 1985 issue and, tired of the two hour commute to London from his home in Somerton, he got an agreement from the Newsfield directors to run ZZAP from nearby Yeovil. ZZAP's first issue arrived in newsagents on 11th April 1985. Three issues later the Newsfield directors reneged on the deal, wanting more control over the magazine, and demanded it be moved to Newsfield's Ludlow office. Chris Anderson had brought a house in Somerton and not unreasonably refused and, as he told the AMSTRAD ACTION TRIBUTE magazine:
The situation had become so unpleasant, actually, that I was exhilarated at being sacked and sang the whole way back down the motorway.
Newsfield had the ZX Spectrum and C64 magazine market sewn up but there was a third way. Amstrad's new CPC computer was covered by a single magazine AMSTRAD COMPUTER USER, published by Amsoft, a division of Amstrad:
"...within three months of being fired, we'd funded a new company, set up a poky little office behind a petrol station in Somerton, signed a national distribution agreement, hired a tiny team (including the incredible designer Trevor Gilham, right out of art college), and despatched the first issue of AA to the printer. Amazing days."
Chris Anderson, AMSTRAD ACTION tribute magazine
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| THE GUARDIAN 15 July 1985 page 15 |
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| AMSTRAD COMPUTER USER September 1985 page 111 |
The only pre-launch publicity for AMSTRAD ACTION was a small quarter-page black and white advert in AMSTRAD COMPUTER USER. It's based off an early version of the issue one cover and lacks the "NOT an official Amstrad publication!!" flash, and the number of games reviewed is "OVER 100" compared to the more precise "130 GAMES TESTED" on the final cover. Also missing are the launch offers of two half price Beyond games, Shadowfire and Spy Vs Spy, and two free Ocean games for subscribers.
I just raised enough money to print the first two issues. I figured that if the magazine didn’t sell, we'd know before issue 3 had to be printed and could close the business in time to save my house!
(Chris Anderson, AMSTRAD ACTION tribute magazine)
September 12th was the day the AMSTRAD ACTION issue one went on sale. It cost £1 and ran to 100 pages, with 26 of those being advertising. A couple of ideas are repurposed from the launch issue of ZZAP; an introduction to the team; all four of them, editor Peter Connor, software editor Bob Wade, art editor Trevor Gunam, and publisher Chris Anderson [1]; comments from the software industry about Amstrad computers; and a Rockford-like mascot called Toot who could be scribbled into the corners of pages to make comments on their contents.
All that said. The closest comparison to issue one of AMSTRAD ACTION is not ZZAP, it's Newsfield's first magazine CRASH. Both give the impression of being produced on a shoestring by an editorial team hanging on to the production cycle by their fingernails. Colour is precious and mainly used for adverts rather than editorial pages. Both magazines cheat and bulk out the majority of their pages by reviewing the back catalogue of already available games. No one has really worked out how to photograph games from a computer screen. Blocks of text are broken up with black and white illustrations rather than photos. And both magazines make the most of their scrappy, outsider status.
There was one particularly bad day. We'd been pressing for Amstrad’s support for the launch, and for permission to use the name Amstrad Action (which had already been publicised to the newstrade). Finally we received the letter from Amstrad. It essentially said No. “You must not pass of as Amstrad. You may call it “Action on the Amstrad CPC Computer’”. We felt this might not lead to instant success on the newsstand. The same day we were told that Newsfield were launching a direct competitor. Bob, glancing up from level 33 of some game he was reviewing, dolefully commented “this isn’t going to happen, is it?”
Chris Anderson, AMSTRAD ACTION tribute magazine
The old Future PLC website (archived here) gives a good summary of the background to issue one:
Chris Anderson, founds Future Publishing with a £10k bank loan. The company's first magazine, Amstrad Action is launched with 100 pages and a print run of 40,000 copies. It only sells 16,000
Issue two of AMSTRAD ACTION runs to 108 pages with 32 of advertising. Two new people have joined the team, assistant art editor George Murphy and office administrator Diane Tavener. A small self-deprecating story is printed on the editorial page:
West country blues
Everyone
told us that Somerset was a bit dead on the computer front but this is
ridiculous. While telephone calls from all over the country reveal
Amstrad Action to be selling out in numerous newsagents, here in
Somerton its gone down like a lead balloon. Come on-sale day, five
copies of issue one turned up in this village's two newsagents. At time
of writing, 10 days later, five copies still remain.
AMSTRAD ACTION reprinted their advert in the October 1985 issue of AMSTRAD COMPUTER USER, and after that AA was on its own in a harsh competitive world. Newsfield launched AMTIX, on 17th October, a week after AMSTRAD ACTION issue two hit newsagents. It wasn't until very recently that I learned AMTIX was deliberately launched as a spoiler, as Julian Rignall revealed on Bluesky:
Amtix was thrown together quickly... They cobbled it together fast to screw Amstrad Action, because how dare Chris launch against us, despite him being fucked over and fired by them.
Perhaps unsurprisingly under the circumstances, sales of the first two issues were disappointing:
The first two issues of AA sold pretty poorly... much worse than the numbers our distributor was initially estimating. Had we known the true situation, issue three would never have been published.
Chris Anderson, AMSTRAD ACTION tribute magazine
Issue three went on sale on 7th November 1985. 108 pages with 35 of adverts. The summary of local sales was updated:
Last month we reported that not one single solitary copy of Amstrad Action 1 had been sold in Somerton. But shortly after the magazine went to press, one copy disappeared from the shop. We can't be sure it was actually bought but all the signs seem to suggest that was the case.
Now we can reveal that issue two has also sold one copy -a staggering 33.3% of newsagents stock in this Somerset metropolis
Issue three also printed a disgruntled letter from a Glasgow newsagent objecting to the phrase "bone-headed newsagent" which appeared in the subscription text for issues one and two. AMSTRAD ACTION took the point, apologised, and rewrote the copy.
Things began to turn around. Issue four, the Christmas Special, went on sale from Thursday 12th December and stretched to 116 pages with 30 of adverts. Sue Taylor snuck onto the payroll handling the AA mail order service (at first from what would later turn out to be her home address). There was also a job advert to recruit "a boffin with a really thorough knowledge of the Amstrad's hardware and software". Most importantly there was a Christmas gift. The present, a novelty at the time, was a cover tape of two unreleased games "donated by Ocean" according to the outofprintarchive.com ; Kung Fu and Number 1. These two games were originally released on the ZX Spectrum by Bug-Byte, from Croatian programmer Dusko Dimitrijevic. How did Ocean end up passing Amstrad conversions on to Chris Anderson? CRASH filled in some of the details when they reviewed Dusko Dimitrijevic's next game MOVIE in March 1986:
Early in 1985, Dusto Dimitrijevic invested in a one way plane ticket from Yugoslavia to this country. Confident that he could sell two computer games he had written to Bug Byte and thus fund his trip home, he arrived in Liverpool to discover that Bug Byte were no more. Dusko had a problem.
Fortunately, he managed to track down one of the directors of Bug Byte; who advised him to see Ocean. Ocean bought the games from Dusko, and used them as promotional freebies
Dusko Dimitrijevic talked about the story to Graeme Mason during his making of MOVIE article for RETRO GAMER; you can read the article on wizwords.net. The success of the cover tape resulted in the circulation doubling. There was also one final update on those all important local circulation figures:
Mystery Reader -Part 3
Huge increases in sales have been reported by our spies in the Somerton area. Issue three has been purchased by at least FOUR people.
After Christmas, issue five drops down to 100 pages, with 27 of advertising. This was the last issue produced at Future Publishing's original home, described by Chris Anderson as:
A poky little office behind a petrol station in Somerton.
There is no petrol station in West Street now. In fact there is no petrol station in Somerton. To solve this mystery was clearly going to take maximum brane power and careful examination of all available FACTS.
FACT ONE, West Street is not long. It's barely 300m in length and runs from the Market Place to the bridge over the railway line.
FACT TWO, the architecture of West Street is in keeping with the rest of the town; old-looking grey limestone buildings. These are terraced and tightly packed and there are no obvious new buildings where a petrol station might have been.
FACT THREE, the only open area along West Street is in front of a hardware store called Overt Locke.
FACT FOUR, in front of Overt Locke is a sort of garden centre-ish bit with a separate entrance and exit.
FACT FIVE, this area looks like it might once have been a petrol station forecourt.
Overt Locke was clearly the place to start.
I drove to Somerton in September 2023 for a bit of a wander. I headed in to the Brunel Shopping Precinct and walked into a shop. What I needed was local knowledge and this seemed ideal. Unfortunately, the person behind the counter had never heard of Valeside or the Old Barn (which will become relevant soon), neither had the other customer in the shop who chipped in that they had "lived in Somerton all their life." This was disappointing. I walked down to Overt Locke and snapped a picture anyway. Later, on newspapers.com I found a 1978 story in the SHEPTON MALLET JOURNAL, 26th October 1978:
Overt Locke (Oils) Ltd, of West Street, Somerton, have been given permission to display two illuminated fascia on an existing canopy at Valeside Filling Station, West Street.
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| September 2023 |
Local knowledge? Bah! My only regret is not standing a bit further back to include both entrances to the Overt Locke forecourt.
The Old Barn, Brunel Precinct, Somerton
There have been some big changes here at AA recently, all of them for the good. We've taken on not just one but two, new members of staff see elsewhere on this page for the gory details - and also moved into luxurious new offices...
It's been pretty cramped at AAHQ these past few months. The new offices and staff will allow us to be more efficient, and so to produce an even better magazine.
The editorial in issue six (116 pages, 32 of adverts) broke the news to readers. AMSTRAD ACTION was a magazine on the grow. A news story gave a little more detail:
The new offices are a mere five minutes walk from our old ones, and are situated very near to Somerton's exclusive and and chic Brunel Shopping Centre. Here you can buy everything you want, as long as you don't want very much.
There must be something about the six month mark. CRASH moved from Roger Kean's house to their office at 2 King Street around the same time (although, alas for narrative symmetry, delays to the lease meant CRASH's move wasn't properly completed until issue seven). The new member of staff arrived to take up their technical editor role, hello Andrew Wilton. Future Publishing now had nine members of staff.
Future Publishing was still a one magazine company but that would change. They mushroomed from here:
Turned out that the UK in 1985 was the perfect time to be launching a specialist magazine business. Computer technology was transforming the production process, making it much, much easier and cheaper. At the same time, the demand for magazines was exploding. So it was right time, right place. And seeing Future take off was a pretty joyful thing. For its first seven years, the company doubled in size every year.
Chris Anderson, AMSTRAD ACTION tribute magazine
Issue seven was the biggest so far, 124 page (44 of adverts) and brought in another two new recruits; Jane Toft, a second assistant art editor, and Jane Farmer, office administrator. There was also news about another "MEGA GIFT!!" a tape containing a complete game and demos. The complete game was Covenant by PSS which sat on a tape with a selection of demos of other PSS games (presumably all negotiated during Peter Connor's visit for the profile printed in issue six).
Issue eight held at 116 pages with 34 pages of adverts. If you're getting bored with me keeping track of this, don't worry I'm going to stop soon. Comparing editorial pages to adverts is a good way of checking the value for money of a magazine. In AA's case it slowly creeps up over the first eight issues as company finances improve; 74 editorial pages for issue 1, 76 for issue 2, and then 73 for issue 3. There's a big jump to 86 for issue 4, the Christmas special followed by a drop back down to 73 pages for issue 5; this is probably book balancing to save a bit of money after the Christmas splurge. Issue 6 is 84 pages, then 80 for issue 7, and 82 for issue 8. The financial health of Future Publishing is clearly improving because when issue 9 rolls around there's no need for the post-free gift cost saving. Instead issue 9 clocks in at 116 pages, 34 of adverts and 82 of editorial.
Issue eight is also a significant milestone because it sees the first departure:
Goodbye. That may seem an odd way to start a letter, but the thing is, you see, I'm leaving. Fresh fields and pastures new beckon me, so Amstrad Action and Pete Connor must tear themselves apart
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| THE GUARDIAN 17 February 1986 page 17 |
The new editor would be Matt Nicholson although he couldn't start until issue 10. He described the early days of Future Publishing on his blog:
Initially they put together the magazine from a room in Chris’s house but had later moved into the top floor of The Old Barn near the centre of town. By the time I arrived they had been joined by technical editor Andy Wilton, two assistant art editors in George Murphy and Jane Toft, and publishing assistants Jane Farmer and Diane Tavener. However Peter Connor had decided to move on, which left a bit of a hole.
Chris Anderson briefly stepped in to supervise issue 9 and his editorial included a note about three new letters which had appeared at the top of the cover:
One change you may have noticed on this month's front cover is the inclusion of the, OK, tiny letters 'PCW'. They spell out the fact that we are now including coverage of these machines which have done so much to contribute to Amstrad's success in recent months.
The Amstrad PCW was a range of low cost word processors which would go on to sell eight million units. It was inevitable that Future Publishing would support it and issue 12 carried the announcement of the company's second magazine to be called 8000 PLUS. Two became three more quickly than expected with the September announcement of Amstrad's low cost IBM compatible computer, which would outsell the PCW with a huge 12 million sales. Matt's blog covers the way Future cleverly used the launch of the Amstrad PC 1512 to generate copy for a 26 page issue one of PC PLUS. Most of these issues would be used as a supplement inside 8000 PLUS but the first 100 copies were couriered fresh from the printer to London, for sale the next day on Future's stand at the newly opened PCW Show.
This is October 1986. AMSTRAD ACTION has just passed its first birthday but Future Publishing Ltd itself is only six months old, having been registered with Companies House on 10th April 1986. Before then, Future Publishing was run by Chris Anderson as a sole trader which is a terrible idea. No wonder he worried about losing his house, he was liable for all the company debts.
Things stabilised for a bit after this, although the editor's letter sometimes made reference to how crowded the Old Barn was becoming. Like this comment at the front of the December 1986 issue:
Future Publishing will soon have to raise a new barn if this population explosion persists. Amstrad Action started 16 months ago with a staff of three. Today 13 people produce three magazines here.
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| AMTIX! April 1987 page 5 |
We'd like to welcome any former readers of the recently demised Amtix magazine.
AMSTRAD ACTION (issue 20 page 5)
The April 1987 issue of AMTIX! was the last. The magazine which was supposed to spoil the launch of AA closed after 18 issues. When Lloyd Mangram looked back over the history of Newsfield, for CRASH issue 48, he wrote:
For several months it had become clear that advertising revenue in the Amstrad CPC field had almost dried up because the sales of games simply didn't warrant software houses spending money to promote them. So AMTIX! was badly hit financially, and during early February it became obvious the magazine could no longer survive the way it was. An attempt was made to change its nature dramatically, but forecasts showed that wouldn't work either. Newsfield's management decided to close AMTIX! down and its editorial team of five was told the bad news - they would become redundant after their April issue went to press in mid-March.
Perhaps not surprisingly, AMSTRAD ACTION took a different angle on its news page:
WHY AMTIX CLOSED
Amitx, the Amstrad magazine aimed largely at game players, has been folded by publishers Newsfield. Issue 18, the April issue, was the last to be published. Although the rights to the title were sold to Database Publications, Amtix has ceased publication as a separate magazine.
The official reason for the sale was that Newsfield wanted to concentrate on their two main computing titles Crash and Zzap!64 and their new youth title LM. Others in the news trade have pointed to the magazines low circulation and low advertising revenue as a more likely reason. Newsfield Publishing director Graeme Kidd admitted the title was their "first non rip-roaring success."
Although modelled on Crash and Zzap it appears that the more adult nature of the Amstrad marketplace prevented Amtix ever expanding beyond a small enthusiastic readership.
Here at the Old Barn the magazine will be missed. We like competition and life won't be quite the same without all those anti-AA letters Amtix loved to print.
Under the circumstances a bit of gloating seems reasonable. The relationship between AMSTRAD ACTION and AMITX! was a lot less hot than COMMODORE COMPUTING INTERNATIONAL's hatred of ZZAP. The two magazines occasionally did mention each other, usually in the context of a bit of gloating; like this; or this (in the blue box at top of the page). It can't have escaped AA's notice that the cover of issue 17 of AMTIX! was redesigned to include a vertical red bar down the left side of the page, with the word AMSTRAD written on it in big letters; kind of like how AMSTRAD ACTION's logo had always appeared on the cover.
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| September 2023 |
When I drove into Somerton I parked in the Brunel Precinct car park. I couldn't immediately see an old barn, let alone The Old Barn. Following the failure of my Roger Cook-type investigative journalism I just wandered around snapping pictures of anything which looked remotely barn-like. The Spice Gallery Indian restaurant was the most likely candidate. It's clearly been extended out at a right angle from the original building. Could this be The Old Barn? I was close but not quite right. There's a Facebook group called Days of Future Past, and Jane Toft posted a short message in November 2022:
I thought I’d take this photo, as I walk past every day on the way back from my shop to my car. This is the site of The Old Barn, Future’s first proper offices in Somerton. For those of us who were part of the first editorial team it holds special memories. Unfortunately it’s now been demolished to make way for the Co-op’s stockroom. Glory days no more.
You can see the photo here. If only I had stood six feet to the left. Still, I've got the bin in and the edge of the stockroom; it counts. I tried and failed to find a photo of The Old Barn, so here's one I swiped from the AMSTRAD ACTION TRIBUTE MAGAZINE.
4 Queen Street, Bath, BA1
Future moved away from Somerton. AMSTRAD ACTION broke the news in issue 21:
The editorial offices are on their way to a new home among the Georgian crescents and spas of Bath. From the first of May we'll be at 4 Queen Street, Bath, BA1 1EJ. The move has been prompted by the rapidly expanding number of staff and titles: the Old Barn became as tight as a garden shed.
However the mail order and subscription departments are staying in Somerton; same old stalls and phone numbers. So any enquiries on special offers, mail-order, subscriptions and so on should be directed to the Old Barn.
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| April 2025 |
Chris Anderson had taken a vote on whether the company should move to Bath, Bristol, or London. Matt Nicholson wrote in his blog:
Chris had great hopes for Somerton, but he accepted that nothing was going to change while it lacked a train station, and that was unlikely to happen any time soon.
The decision to split the editorial and administration between two towns is a bold one. I admire Chris Anderson's commitment to his home town but it could have been a mess. Newsfield got into trouble when it siloed its editorial, administrative, and advertising departments into three buildings around Ludlow but (whisper) maybe Future Publishing was better run than Newsfield.The company was incorporated on 10th April 1986 and commenced trading on 1st May 1986. Net assets of £7,412 were transferred from the former sole trader of Mr C. Anderson (director) to the company, which also took over the publication of a magazine for computer users. The company's principle activity has been the publication of such magazines, with two further titles launched during the year.
Those three titles are AMSTRAD ACTION, 8000 PLUS and PC PLUS. Future's first non-Amstrad exclusive magazine comes next; ACE. It was a multi-format magazine covering the dominant 8-bit home computers, plus these new fangled thingies with 16-bits, and occasionally consoles. Issue one appeared in October 1987. Peter Connor was back as co-editor along with Steve Cooke. ACE was, according to a 1999 INDEPENDENT profile of Chris Anderson, the first UK magazine produced on Apple Macintoshes with desktop publishing:
This was back in the dark days of the Eighties, when Macs crashed if you looked at them askance. In Anderson's words, it was a nightmare: "We produced a complete dog of a first issue."
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| April 1988 |
Today they number 75 and produce six titles.
The problem I've got writing about Future is, it's not easy to find information about their non-computer titles. Sites like Magazines from the Past comprehensively list every computer title the company put out but if you are interested in cross-stitch magazines then you are on your own. This is one of the reasons why I expect this article to fade out some time around 1994 when Chris Anderson sold Future Publishing to Pearson for £52.7 million and he earned somewhere between £30-£40 million in the process [2]. Future just gets too damn big too quickly.
March 1989 saw ACE win the title of "Magazine of the year" from... someone [3]. Everyone at ACE was too excited to say who gave them the title but they did print a picture of editor Graeme Kidd with Hale and Pace.
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| ACE March 1989 page 138 |
This appears to have caught the attention of EMAP and in the spring of 1989 they made what the old Future website described as an offer "too good to turn down". Just over a million pounds, according to the INDEPENDENT profile. The June 1989 issue was the last one produced by Future and the sale seems to have been completed at very short notice. The June issue of ACE is very much business as usual and carries a Next Month box listing a selection of articles, none of which feature in the next issue.
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| ACE June 1989 page 13 |
The ACE editorial team stayed with Future Publishing and allowed the company to split ST AMIGA FORMAT into two titles. The ACE team moved on to AMIGA FORMAT while the ST AMIGA FORMAT worked on a magazine now just called ST FORMAT.
4 Queen Street stands facing the junction with Harrington Place. I can only assume Queen Street was not named after one of the popular Queens because it's narrow and feels like a backwater. It's lovely, obviously, because most of Bath is lovely. The building looks pretty big but it only took Future Publishing two years to outgrow it. By 1990 the company was rich enough to buy itself a new home, £2,160,000 spent on new offices in Bath on a 150 year lease.
Beaufort Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, Avon BAl 2AP
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| April 2025 |
Is that city on the banks of the river Avon
Future Shocks, eh? Turns out to be a pretty apt title this time round. We've had a bit of A Shock, and it's to do with The Future. More news next month!
The first Future issue, April 1990, issue duly arrived with the coverline "The Future starts here..." Future was a good home for YOUR SINCLAIR and as the 8-bit computer market dwindled the magazine continued for another three years, and was able to produce a proper final issue.
Future changed their registered office address from The Old Barn to Monmouth Street in March 1990. It's clear this big new building was supposed to provide a permanent home for the company but almost immediately the new building filled to capacity. COMMODORE FORMAT arrived in October, giving the company a magazine for each of the three 8-bit computers. More importantly, Future began moving seriously into non-computer magazines with the launch of CLASSIC CD "The magazine you can listen to"
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| THE GUARDIAN 26 April 1990 page 26 |
The clever gimmick was a cover mounted CD to let the reader listen to the music featured in the magazine, by 1992 it had a circulation of 61,150.
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| AMSTRAD ACTION November 1991 page 14 |
AMSTRAD ACTION didn't just outlast AMTIX! It outlasted Newsfield. The publisher went into receivership in September 1991 having failed to repeat the success of CRASH and ZZAP. Those two magazines were left propping the company up even as the 8-bit market shrank and CRASH and ZZAP slipped in circulation behind their Future competitors.
AMSTRAD ACTION, YOUR SINCLAIR, and COMMODORE FORMAT all noted the demise of Newsfield. With YS and CF including a flash on their covers alerting the former CRASH and ZZAP readers to relevant news stories inside. The YS story runs on page 4 and CF on page 14; but annoyingly Future appear to have stricken COMMODORE FORMAT from the internet archive, so I can't link to it. There's a good summary at commodoreformatarchive.com who also have a copy of that month's subscriber's newsletter in which editor Steve Jarratt notes:
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| YOUR SINCLAIR and COMMODORE FORMAT November 1991 |
The big news of this issue is that ZZAP!64 has ceased to be. Newsfield -which produced ZZAP!, Crash, Raze and Games Master International- went to the wall owing around half-a-million quid. It's still uncertain whether anyone will buy the ZZAP! name and relaunch the magazine -so far, nothing has been announced
ZZAP! returned in December 1992 as a Europress Impact title and when it did their editorial news story quoted Jane Richardson, the publisher of COMMODORE FORMAT:
"CRASH and ZZAP! are very strong titles and we certainly didn't want them to die.... We had several options open to us had we got the titles. We probably would have incorporated them into our existing titles."
The 8-bit era was winding down. CRASH closed again in April 1992. Sold off to EMAP who merged it with SINCLAIR USER. They then published their last issue in April 1993. Future's 8-bit titles outlasted their competitors; YOUR SINCLAR ran until September 1993. COMMODORE FORMAT until October 1995. Both magazines got the chance to say goodbye to their readers with proper final issues.
And AMSTRAD ACTION, the magazine that started it all? Future's treatment of AMSTRAD ACTION was out of kilter with the other two titles. It doesn’t get a chance to say goodbye. Steve Carey, who had edited AMSTRAD ACTION from August 1988 to November 1989, was a publisher at Future in 1995 and AMSTRAD ACTION TRIBUTE magazine questioned him about the lack of a final issue:
Why AA did not receive a farewell issue is a mystery to me, at this distance. I think perhaps it's somehow something to do with AA not just being about games? I can't quite see how this led to it ending with such a coitus interruptus. Perhaps it lacked a Stevie Jarratt or a Matt Sinclair to fight its corner?
The last issue was June 1995. Issue 117. It was 24 pages long and had a cover price of £3.25, which gives you some idea of the state of the Amstrad market at the time. A note on page two told readers that issue 118 would be available from Thursday 22nd June 1995 but it wasn't. Four months before its tenth anniversary, the magazine that started it all just stopped.
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| AMSTRAD ACTION June 1995 page 20 |
Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA
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| April 2025 |
Unexpected time jump. Thirty years later, this is where Future Publishing is right now. Quay House is all of five minutes walk from the train station. A new(ish) building bolted on to the west end of of a block and if you are lucky enough to have an office on the south of the building then you look out over the river Avon. The building is big, too big for a single photo, and hopefully large enough to hold all of Future's staff. Quay House became Future's registered address in 2014 but the company had space there as early as 2006; OFFICIAL PLAYSTATION MAGAZINE was based there.
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| April 2025 |
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| April 2025 |
This magnificent grade II listed building was once the home of magazines like CROSS STICHER and QUICK AND EASY CROSS STICH. I remember once being told the real profit in Future Publishing came from the cross stich magazines and that the idea was suggested by someone who just walked in off the street one day. I was in a pub drinking BEER at the time so take this half remembered fact with a pinch of salt.
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| April 2025 |
I have no idea what business went on in Palace Yard Mews. I also don't understand why a narrow street linking two quiet roads should have people constantly parading up and down it, however I had to wait about five minutes before it became quiet enough to take this picture.
15/17 Trim Street
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| April 2025 |
A young man and women were sitting on the pavement opposite the Trim Street building. "Are you the estate agent?" asked the bloke in an amused tone as I fussed over my photograph, struggling to get the whole building in frame. "I wish I was," I replied and we had a brief chat, during which I learned building was empty and up for rent. There was some entertaining local gossip relating to why the building was up for rent, but I forget what it was. It wasn't connected with Future Publishing so it went in one brain cell and out the other. Trim Street was the home of various non-computer magazines like MTB PRO and the music magazines TOTAL GUITAR, CLASSIC CD, FUTURE MUSIC, and so on.
Seven Dials
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| April 2025 |
If I'm right, Seven Dials was the home of Future's computer magazines. I got to go there a couple of times with my friend to knock around in the Edge offices. I had a go on the office 3DO; my exclusive verdict -not good enough Trip. The trouble was, I wasn't paying any attention to my surroundings so I've got a vague memory of going through a key-coded door and that's it.
Seven Dials was a new development in 1992 and there's an entertaining news story in the WESTERN DAILY PRESS (Wednesday 21 October 1992, page 21) about a "recession busting" party thrown by Chris Anderson at the new Clos du Roy restaurant, in which Future Publishing had a stake. One hundred people were invited to the party, the same number of jobs Future was about to create on eight new magazines. On the invitation list to the party, Bath MP Don Foster and Arthur Bostrom from 'Allo 'Allo.
Westgate Buildings
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| April 2025 |
As with Trim Street, I don't know what was done at the Westgate Buildings. I think the Westgate Building was in use from around 2000 until the official move to Quay House in 2014. These days, it's a Travelodge. Should you feel the urge to sleep in someone's old office.
Not Found
Locksbrooke Road, the location of Future Publishing's delivery warehouse
Green Park, I only had a fleeting reference to it being a place circulation were based. Email in if you have any more information about this or other Future offices I've missed.
Taht Nodnol
Future Publishing had, at least three London offices these were
99 Baker Street
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| May 2025 |
The first Future Publishing office in London? (That question mark is doing a lot of heavy lifting). I' was struggling to put a date on when Future Publishing arrived in Baker Street because it involves trawling through the back issues of inadequately achieved magazines. Future Publishing acquired more cast-off titles from Dennis Publishing during the early 2000s. METAL HAMMER was an early one and they seem to have listed 99 Baker Street as an editorial address. HI-FI CHOICE certainly did, and god bless the good folks at worldradiohistory.com for keeping a full set of back copies. Thanks to that I've been able to establish the first Future Publishing issue was February 2000, issue 199.
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| May 2025 |
I'd better level with you, I wasn't sure this was the right building when I took the photo. Balcombe Street gives no street numbers at the junction with Marylebone Road. There's simply a big building that faces on to Marylebone Road, then the one in my picture, and then a posh old block of flats called Melcombe Court. No business names, no signs, nothing useful for ID purposes. Logically it must be this one, I thought as I took the photo; fingers crossed.
I'm sort of half right. Enlightenment dawned when I remembered Future's time at Balcombe Street would be covered by the early days of Streetview. Sure enough, set the fast return switch for 2012 and there it is. Future's building appears to extend all the way up Balcombe Street from the Marylebone Road junction and what I've got is a photo of the back 50% and the loading bay, which is good enough for me.
Streetview's 2012 images show doors where there are now no doors -blocked off during a 2022 refurbishment. This goes some way to explain an oddity I found as I was trying to work out when Future moved to Balcombe Street. The February 2006 issue of PC ZONE gives the editorial address as 1 Balcombe Street. This is changed in the April 2006 issue to 2 Balcombe Street. Presumably somebody opened a new door, or something. PC ZONE ended its days at 2 Balcombe Street with the November 2010 issue. Future moved out in 2014, some time around November judging by this photo on the Days of Future Past Facebook page.
121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6QA
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| May 2025 |
The current London office. It's a lovely leafy street very close to Paddington Station. The building is very stylish and very discreet. If you didn't know Future Publishing had an office there, then there's nothing on the exterior to give it away.
Amstrad Action Mail Order, Units 10/11 Imperial Studios, Imperial Road, London SW6
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| May 2025 |
AMSTRAD ACTION, like CRASH, ZZAP! and AMTIX, sold software via mail order. For the first three issues this was handled from a London address in Imperial Road. As you can see, it was undergoing a small amount of refurbishment when I passed by, to see how it used to look take a quick trip back in time.
The office was based at 18 Pinewood Drive, which is actually a house. Issue seven included a story about an unexpected result of using this address:
'EIlo, 'ello, 'ello
What's all this then? The local constabulary have at last been taking on interest in Amstrad Action, Not, I hasten to add, because we're guilty of any nefarious crimes or even any petty ones.
No, it seems that a certain member of 'The Force' in the metropolis of Exeter ordered a game from the world famous AA Mail Order service. It didn't arrive, because we couldn't get it from our suppliers. Policeman grows suspicious — well. It's am occupational hazard. Suspicions grow on seeing that the Mail Order service operates from a private address.
A Bogus Computer Games Company Red Alert goes out from Exeter to Somerton. Squad car arrives to check out Sue Taylor. But if she's not genuine, who is? Yes, folks, this is Amstrad Action - the mag that keeps the crime figures down.
Following the move to Bath, there was more space in the Old Barn and Sue Taylor was able to work from there. Issue 22 included a polite request not to call the old software number because it was Sue Taylor's home telephone.
Eardley House, 182/184 Campden Hill Road, London, W8
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| June 2024 |
AMSTRAD ACTION didn't have it's own in house advertising sales team at first. This was handled from London by Mike Carroll, until issue 25 when advertising moved to 4 Queen Street [4] with the rest of Future Publishing. Mike Carroll's address, given on the AA masthead each month, was at Eardley House which has previously cropped up in this blog because it was also home to BULLETIN 100 the video magazine which promoted new games on VHS tapes sent out to software shops. In fact the offices at Eardley House were a regular commune; also based there, Viper Software (makers of Big League Soccer and Big League Soccer 2) and a company I've never heard of called C.S.M. Consolidated Software Marketing.
Facts and stuff
The Future Publishing annual accounts keep a tally of the number of staff working for the business. Seeing them laid out on a year-by-year basis gives you an idea of how quickly the company grew and shrank.
| Production | Administrative | Total | |
| 1987 | 9 | 11 | 20 |
| 1988 | 31 | 11 | 42 |
| 1989 | 60 | 10 | 70 |
| 1990 | 87 | 17 | 104 |
| 1991 | 142 | 25 | 167 |
| 1992 | 217 | 32 | 249 |
| 1993 | 353 | 64 | 417 |
| 1994 | 334 | 59 | 389 |
| 1995 | 366 | 55 | 421 |
| 1996 | 400 | 60 | 460 |
| 1997 | 532 | 63 | 595 |
| 1998 | 644 | 72 | 716 |
| 1999 | 599 | 190 | 789 |
| 2000 | 716 | 238 | 954 |
| 2001 | 566 | 238 | 804 |
| 2002 | 391 | 207 | 598 |
| 2003 | 391 | 208 | 599 |
| 2004 | 457 | 135 | 592 |
| 2005 | 612 | 158 | 770 |
| 2006 | 842 | 182 | 1024 |
| 2007 | 848 | 177 | 1025 |
| 2008 | 854 | 170 | 1024 |
| 2009 | 830 | 145 | 975 |
| 2010 | 795 | 139 | 934 |
| 2011 | 761 | 151 | 912 |
| 2012 | 702 | 141 | 843 |
| 2013 | 694 | 148 | 842 |
| 2014 | 611 | 68 | 679 |
| 2015 | 347 | 71 | 418 |
| 2016 | 321 | 65 | 386 |
| 2017 | 407 | 96 | 503 |
| 2018 | 432 | 158 | 590 |
| 2019 | 481 | 159 | 640 |
| 2020 | 871 | 288 | 1159 |
| 2021 | 1448 | 407 | 1855 |
| 2022 | 1495 | 652 | 2147 |
| 2023 | 1536 | 588 | 2124 |
That's a long list. I'd expected to see signs that the company was affected by the dot.com crash around 2002 and the global financial crash in 2008. Sure enough, you can see the company grow and contract but what I didn't expect to see was the decline down to 386 employees in 2016; the smallest number of staff since 1992. What happened? It's possible there's a move from employing contracted staff to freelancers, and its possible some staff were transferred off to subsidiaries. Mainly it looks like Future was hit by a fall in print and digital revenue. Job losses followed, 160 when the sport and craft businesses was sold to Immediate Media in 2014. The same year, one third of US staff left and the company sold Monmouth Street. Future recovered from 2016 onwards, acquiring Imagine Media who published RETRO GAMER. They've also brought a lot of price comparison websites, including Go Compare in 2020 as part of a £594m purchase of GoCo Group.
In short, dinosaurs like me who imagine Quay House to be full of people beavering away to produce monthly magazines like it was 1999 are wrong. In terms of names I recognise from ye olden days; PC GAMER, RETRO GAMER, SFX, and EDGE are still going. And that's about it.
ABC Circulation Figures
'ABC' stands for Audit Bureau of Circulations. A magazine's ABC figure is universally accepted as the measure of a magazines sales any magazine worth its salt publishes ABC figures - if there's no ABC, it means the mag is ashamed to print it!
(AMSTRAD ACTION, April 1992 page 10)
| Date | AMSTRAD ACTION |
YOUR SINCLAIR |
AMIGA FORMAT |
ST FORMAT |
AMIGA POWER |
| Jan-Jun 88 | 35,095 | ||||
| Jul-Dec 88 | 38,457 | ||||
| Jan-Jun 89 | 35,189 | ||||
| Jul-Dec 89 | 35,064 | 40,371 | 43,007 | ||
| Jan-Jun 90 | 30,156 | 60,717 | 57,123 | 50,246 | |
| Jul-Dec 90 | 31,228 | 60,368 | 81,234 | 55,455 | |
| Jan-Jun 91 | 35,159 | 65,444 | 115,158 | 70,256 | |
| Jul-Dec 91 | 37,120 | 59,059 | 130,143 | 62,202 | 55,173 |
| Jan-Jun 92 | 35,298 | 40,648 | 161,256 | 69,509 | 60,184 |
| Jul-Dec 92 | 27,090* | 20,775 | 144,330 | 62,210 | 50,222 |
| Jan-Jun 93 | 21,832* | 52,810 | 54,182 | ||
| Jul-Dec 93 | 15,168* | 43,469 | 54,124 | ||
| Jan-Jun 94 | 38,671 | 48,147 | |||
| Jul-Dec 94 | 23,223 | 46,326 | |||
| Jan-Jun 95 | 21,411 | 30,486 | |||
| Jul-Dec 95 | 14,379 | 18,704 |
AMIGA FORMAT either stops printing its ABCs after Jul-Dec 1992 or they are printed elsewhere in the magazine on pages which have not been not archived.
AMIGA POWER loses the will to keep its circulation figures properly updated and towards the end they go really skewwhiff. The magazine correctly listed the Jul-Dec 1994 ABC figure as 46,326, from April to September 1995. Then in October 1995 they start claiming the Jul-Dec 1994 figure is 30,486 (when they probably mean the Jan-June 1995 results). This gets worse in February 1995 when they claim the 30,486 figure covers Jul-Dec 1995. Whatever happened to AMIGA POWERS's concern for accuracy!!!!!
COMPUTER ARTS: 22,321
EDGE: 28,694
ESSENTIAL PLAYSTATION: 35,528
GAMES MASTER: 38,172
MAC FORMAT: 42,865
.NET: 42,814
N64: 37,034
OFFICIAL PLAYSTATION MAGAZINE: 146,972
PLAYSTATION POWER: 39,052
PC ANSWERS: 18,634
PC FORMAT: 91,540
PC FORMAT GOLD: 20,000 (quarterly)
PC GAMER: 60,178
PC GUIDE: 20,056
PC PLUS: Unreadable
SATURN POWER: 50,000
Jan-Jun 1997: 146,972 (probably, see above)
Jul-Dec 1997: 205,619 (GUARDIAN, 16 Feb 1998 page 56)
Jan-Jun 1998: 314,114
Jul-Dec 1998: 380,186
Jan-Jun 1999: 385,764
Jul-Dec 1999: 351,775
Jul-Dec 2001: 102,332
Jan-Jul 2003: 31,774
2005, the INDEPENDENT, 11th July 2005 page 81, also gave some circulation figures
EDGE 28,790
GAMES MASTER 62,159
PLAYSTATION 2 172,593
OFFICIAL XBOX 88,136
PC GAMER 57,023
PC ZONE 40,480
2006, a few more figures from the INDEPENDENT, Sunday 29 Jan 2006 page 137
July-December 2005
PC ZONE 29,000
GAMESMASTER 50,000
PLAYSTATION 2 148,000
That's more than enough ABC figures.
At the end of my day in Bath, I still had half an hour before my train left. I walked up to Pulteney Bridge and leaned on the wall and looked out over the weir, enjoying the April sunshine and briefly losing myself in a reverie of might-haves and could-have-beens. Then I slowly walked back to the station, trotted up on to platform 2 and stood, as I used to, looking out across the town. The reality of Bath always feels thin to me. As if I'm stood right next to a parallel world where all my dreams came true. I was never able to exert the effort of will that would turn my dreams into a reality but overall I don't feel that churning, unfocused, frustrating desire anymore. The sense of loss has reduced down to a dull ache. Perhaps because the UK magazine industry isn't what it used to be. Perhaps because I realise those opportunities have passed. Perhaps because I'm a little more cynical about what used to be my dream job. Or perhaps because I've become more settled in myself. Is it possible I've become more... mature? I do still love a good tradition however, so as I looked out over the town I affirmed "I'm coming back".
The AMSTRAD ACTION issue one cover comes from Magazines from the Past Wiki
[1] I'm not including freelancers like Steve Cooke who wrote the adventure column as The Pilgrim.
[2] He brought the company again in 1999 as part of a consortium with Future chief executive Greg Ingham and Apax Venture Partners, this time the price was £142 million. The most recent accounts filed with Companies House detail an operating profit for 2023 of £93,342,000 and list the number of staff as 2147. This information is probably too relevant to relegated to a mere footnote but there you go.
[3] Possibly InDin, the computer and video games industry's annual dinner.
[4] For three issues. Then from issue 28 to 38 AMSTRAD ACTION's advertising is handled by Margaret Clarke from Byrom House, 58 Brinksway, Stockport, Cheshire. The advertising for 8000 PC, ACE, etc, all seems to be done from Bath, so I've no idea why an exception was made for AA's advertising.
Future staff. Where have I missed? Please leave a comment or send an email to whereweretheynow@gmail.com
I am also on Bluesky @shammountebank.bsky.social
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