Future plc closed its Washington, D.C. office, where its B2B publications like SmartBrief and the former Dennis Publishing titles it acquired in 2021 were based, according to three Future employees.<\/p>\n
The D.C. office on 13th Street NW closed at the end of December, the same time Future shuttered its Atlanta office, which Digiday reported on last week.<\/a> Future is down to two offices in the U.S.: its U.S. headquarters in New York City and an office in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cLike many businesses at the moment, we are reviewing our operating model, and part of our operating model is our location strategy,\u201d a Future plc spokesperson said in an email. In some locations, \u201cmoving to a hybrid model has meant that our office space is now too large for our employee footprint in that location and we have therefore taken the decision to move our teams to working fully remote in those areas,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n Two employees based out of Future\u2019s former D.C. office told Digiday that they had not heard of any layoffs as a result of the closures. The D.C.-based teams now work remotely.\u00a0<\/p>\n Employees were informed of the office closures with a virtual meeting and a follow-up email, sent by Future COO Claire Blunt on Dec. 6, a copy of which was shared with Digiday by an employee.<\/p>\n The email reads, in part: \u201cWe are in quite a challenging and uncertain economic time, and in such times we must remain resilient and focused on a commercially sensible approach by identifying areas where we can deliver the most effective operation. One of these areas has been our location strategy and considerations around the usage of our offices, recruitment in the local market and overall expenditure. We have recognised that there is limited scale and scalability in the D.C. and Atlanta markets and we can no longer retain offices in those spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Future encouraged employees to go into the office two to three days a week, the D.C. office was a \u201csparsely-used space for the most part\u2026 People were in the office less than that,\u201d said one employee, who asked to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n A second employee, who also spoke under the condition of anonymity, said that though they were going into the office only about once a month, they liked having the option of working from there. \u201cI do miss the opportunity to go into the office sometimes and see people in person. Not knowing the next time that I might ever see coworkers in person is a little weird,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems rational to assume that most companies are realizing that they have too much space, and they consolidate,\u201d said Doug Arthur, managing director at media research and advisory firm Huber Research Partners. \u201cEverybody\u2019s worried about [the economic] slowdown, because interest rates are up\u2026But when you\u2019re making a real estate decision, you\u2019re not making a short-term decision. You\u2019re making a long-term decision,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t imagine companies making real estate decisions because they think the economy is going to be soft in the second half of 2023. That doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense to me. I think it\u2019s more a function of the flex-work schedule, the ability of employees \u2014 and frankly the desire of employees \u2014 to work remotely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The reduction in Future\u2019s real estate footprint in the U.S. naturally leads to questions regarding the British company\u2019s ambitions to expand on this side of the pond<\/a> with brands that include Marie Claire, Who What Wear, The Week and Kiplinger, among others.<\/p>\n However, the Future spokesperson denied that the real estate decisions signal a change to those plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe specific needs of one location do not have an impact on our plans and focus on the U.S. If you look at our latest financial results, they are testament to our U.S. expansion. Our U.S. business continues to grow and comprise a greater share of Future\u2019s global revenue \u2014\u00a0going from 35% to 39% year-over-year,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n Future\u2019s U.S. business is an important driver of overall company revenue. In Future\u2019s 2022 earnings<\/a>, the company achieved organic revenue growth of 7% in the U.S.; for comparison, the company\u2019s organic revenue in the U.K. declined by 1%. While that\u2019s down from 2021 revenue growth of 27% in the U.S., the U.S. brings in significantly more digital ad revenue than the U.K., at about $198.7 million (or \u00a3163.4 million) compared to about $82.42 million (or \u00a367.8 million) in the U.K. (Future defines \u201corganic growth\u201d as \u201cthe like for like portfolio excluding acquisitions and disposals made during FY 2021 and FY 2022 and including the impact of closures and new launches at constant [foreign exchange] rates.\u201d)<\/p>\n However, Future\u2019s U.S. audience declined 13% year-over-year from November 2021 to 2022, according to Comscore data.<\/p>\n Future plans to \u201ccontinue to assess new opportunities to expand our reach in North America,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Future is also investing in its senior leadership in the U.S. On Jan. 10, the company appointed two sales execs based out of the New York office: Ali Dib as head of agency strategy and Jeffrey Goldstein as head of programmatic.\u00a0<\/p>\n Notably, Future CEO Zillah Byng-Thorne announced in September<\/a> that she intended to step down by the end of this year. The company\u2019s board has appointed a global executive search firm to find Byng-Thorne\u2019s successor, according to Future\u2019s latest earnings report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nEconomic considerations<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What the office closures mean for Future\u2019s U.S. ambitions<\/strong><\/h2>\n