From Bath to Bangalore

Dave Harvey
BBC West Business Correspondent

"Some say the English language is the world's most successful virus". Simon Wear, of Future Publishing, is trying to explain the success of the company where he works.

He puts it down to the English language.

"Everyone speaks English now, and everyone respects our magazine industry," he said.

T3 is sold in more than 20 countries

He works for Future Publishing in Bath, along with 1,000 other Bathonians.

You may not have heard the name, but if your passion is mountain bikes, gadgets or knitting you probably read them.

There is always a limit on the number of gadget freaks or knitting queens in a country, so Future has decided to take its wares global.

At a country house hotel near Bath, I met publishers from Russia, Dubai, and Italy. They are here to talk magazines with the UK directors.

Here staff are meeting their counterparts from around the world.

One example is the gadget mag T3, which is sold in more than 20 countries, translated into Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Italian - you name it.

In Russia, Oleg Argirov tells me, T3 is bought by young professionals.

"Managers, entrepreneurs, people who buy T3 want to show their success," he said.

They took a set of MP3 players and blasted them with a shotgun to see how strong they were. Only an Englishman would think of that. Mahmoud Boksmati

People like Oleg buy the title lock stock and shiny chrome barrel; the text, the pictures, the layouts, the extraordinary mix of shiny gadgets and girls in swimwear.

Mahmoud Boksmati runs the Middle East operation, where the magazine, published in Arabic and English, is riding the wave of money sweeping the Gulf.

Dubai is awash with young businessmen buying flashy gadgets, and T3 gives them their world in glossy technicolour.

The Arabic edition is the only copy that doesn't feature a girl in a bikini on the front. He says it's the humour which sells the magazine.

"The group tests are hilarious. They took a set of MP3 players and blasted them with a shotgun to see how strong they were. Only an Englishman would think of that," he said.

Luca Sprea runs a successful Italian publishing company. Why, I wonder, does he buy a British import instead of designing his own?

"Magazines are a kind of magic and Italians are happy to buy from a country at the avant garde of technology."

So if you see a group of lads laughing and playing with a shiny new gadge, remember that what they say counts from Bath to Bangalore.

Advertisement

T3 mazagine readers in Delhi, Moscow and Dubai explain why they read this publication.