Technology & Music Magazines & Websites Acquired

Future Network PLC
7 January 2000


         FUTURE ACQUIRES TECHNOLOGY AND MUSIC MAGAZINES AND WEBSITES          
                                                                              
         Four magazines and three websites in consumer technology and         
                  rock music bought from Dennis Publishing. 
                                                           
Future Network plc (LSE: FNET), the video games, home computing and other
specialist consumer magazines and online publisher, today announces that it
has acquired four magazines and three websites from Dennis Publishing.

The magazine titles acquired are: Hi-Fi Choice, the No. 2 magazine in the
hi-fi market with a 1998 ABC of 21,613; Home Entertainment, one of the 
longest established home entertainment technology magazines with a 1998 
ABC of 20,112; Classic Rock, a recently launched rock magazine; and Metal
Hammer, the market leading monthly rock magazine aimed at the 16-21 year old
market.  Metal Hammer's ABC for the six months to June 1999 was 39,485 and
this magazine is also published under licence in Spain, USA, Israel and
Russia. The websites acquired are home-entertainment.co.uk, 
hifichoice.co.uk and metalhammer.co.uk.  These websites served a total
of 1.2 million page impressions in November 1999, up 27% on October 1999.

Commenting on the acquisitions, Jane Ingham, Managing Director of Future
Publishing said:

'These are excellent, successful magazines and websites, and we are 
delighted that we can bring them into the Future stable.  They offer
powerful synergies with existing Future titles, and the combined portfolio
will be much stronger as a result.  We believe that they have a lot of
potential to do even better over the coming years.'

Home Entertainment and Hi-Fi Choice complement Future's existing T3: 
Tomorrow's Technology Today and What DVD? magazines and together will 
form a group of titles which cover the full range of consumer electronics
hardware including digital TV, DVD and audio systems.

Metal Hammer and Classic Rock are youth oriented titles specialising in 
the hard rock genre of music. These will be published alongside Future's
existing Guitarist and Total Guitar magazines, which are aimed at the
musicians involved in this music genre.

Commenting on the technology magazines, Mike Frey, Publishing Director
at Future said:  'Hi-Fi Choice and Home Entertainment are highly respected
titles appealing to the up-market end of the consumer technology audience. 
They make a perfect fit with our existing home entertainment technology
titles, providing us with the full range of titles and greatly strengthening
Future's market position in this sector.'

Referring to the rock magazines Frey added: 'Metal is one of the longest
standing modern music genres and it is undergoing a renaissance as a
reaction to 'safe' boy/girl bands and Britpop.  We are already involved in
this market and believe we can expand the potential of these new
magazines though our experience of publishing magazines with cover mounted
CDs.'

Future has also acquired the content and domain names of three associated
web sites - home-entertainment.co.uk, hifichoice.co.uk and metalhammer.co.uk. 
These sites will be suspended pending their re-launch as e-commerce based
sites in the Spring.  Commenting on the website acquisitions, Strategic
Development Manager, Stuart Anderton said: 'There has been an explosion of
ecommerce activity in consumer electronics in the UK in the last 12 months,
but there is no single website which you can turn  to  for impartial 
buying advice.  The reviews databases of hifichoice.co.uk and
home-entertainment.co.uk, combined with existing material from t3.co.uk and
What DVD? magazine will form a buyers guide which will be the core of our
e-commerce strategy  in the  consumer  electronics market.'  He added,
'metalhammer.co.uk also has a huge e-commerce potential through CD and
concert ticket sales, as well as forming a natural on-line community.'

For further information:

Jane Ingham, Managing Director                   Tel: [phone]
Future Publishing

Stuart Anderton, Strategic Development Manager   Tel: [phone]
Future Publishing

Alistair Ramsay, Managing Director               Tel: [phone]
Dennis Publishing

James Longfield/Harriet Keen                     Tel: [phone]
Hogarth Partnership


Background on The Future Network:

The Future Network was founded in the UK in  1985.  Today Future publishes
112 magazines worldwide and has extensive online activities generating
over 50 million page views per month.  It is the world's fastest growing
major publisher; is the leading publisher of video games and home computing
magazines in the UK, France, Italy and the US; and, ranks as the fourth
largest magazine publisher in the UK.  Future employs over 1,400 people in
offices in Bath, London, San Francisco, New York, Paris, Milan, Munich and
Rotterdam.  Future was floated on the London Stock Exchange in June 1999
and has a current market capitalisation of over £1 billion.

Future's internet activities (FutureNet) serve the PC, Mac, Games, Music and
Football communities in the US and the UK with sites like maximumpc.com,
maximumpc.co.uk, macdaily.com, dailyradar.com, samplenet.co.uk, and
ufn.co.uk.  Future's websites and web networks provides rich, community and
information-based services to people in these and related markets worldwide. 
The network model is simple, but effective: Aggregate content (from Future's
own magazines and from other sites which become affiliated into the online
networks) and provide services (such as e-commerce, auctions, e-mail and
discussion forums) to build high traffic in concentrated areas that will 
be of great value to marketers.