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TWST: Can we start with a brief introduction to I Feel Good Holdings Plc (London: IFG.L), as you see the company today?

Mr. Smith: IFG is an independent British magazine publishing specialising in titles for the young men’s lifestyle sector. The company is headed up by James Brown who, in launching the extremely successful loaded magazine in 1994, is credited with started the worldwide boom of men’s magazines that has seen Maxim and FHM prosper for Dennis Publishing and EMAP respectively. The company was incorporated in December 1999 and started trading on the Alternative Investment Market in May 2000. At the IPO IFG received significant funding from Mr Felix Dennis of Dennis Publishing who became our Chairman and other high net worth individuals including Mr Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones. At launch we had just two magazines, a Customer magazine for the Leeds United football team, and a DVD movie magazine named Hotdog. We now have 10 publications on sale for the British Christmas market. These include Jack , Viz, Bizarre, Fortean Times, Leeds, Leeds Leeds, the David Gray music tour programme, Roger’s Profanisaurus, The Viz Bag of Slugs Annual, The Sexist Book of Records and Viz’s Guide to Wig Watching. The last four are hardback books in partnership with McMillan Books, London. In July 2001 we acquired 3 titles, Viz, Bizarre, and Fortean Times from John Brown Publishing for £6.4 million. This was funded by raising £8 million in a rights issue. Since then we’ve launched a men’s lifestyle magazine, Jack Magazine, in April of this year. James had planned to launch into the mainstream men’s lifestyle sector since he started the company and it’s very much his area of expertise as he has demonstrated in launching Loaded and turning around British GQ. Jack sees the story of men’s monthly publishing move forward, it comes in an A5 format and combines a refreshingly new mix of content; war, history, wildlife, conspiracy, espionage have been added to the traditional mix of humour, fashion, sex and sports. We have had a fantastic response to Jack. The first two issues sold over 100,000 between them and have exceeded expectations. Likewise we have delivered a spectacular array of high fashion, luxury goods, car, and entertainment advertisers throughout 2002, with numerous advanced bookings for the year ahead. Clients include Prada, Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger, Burberry, Tag Heuer, Panasonic, Sony, Mont Blanc, YSL, Audi, VW, all the major movie and recording industry companies, Sony Playstation, Channel 5, Apple, Nokia, Clinique, Calvin Klein, etc. After two quarterly issues Jack has gone monthly from October. Since launch Jack has been voted Best New magazine by the British Society of Magazine Editors and Best Designed New Magazine.

TWST: What are some of the key objectives on your corporate agenda over the next 12 to 24 months?

Mr. Smith: As we move forward we very much see Jack as the growth title in the portfolio; even though we’re going to increase profitability in Viz and in Bizarre through brand extension, Jack’s the magazine where we think we can grow revenues through upmarket clients. We believe we can grow the advertising in Jack significantly next year. From that point onwards we see Jack as a title that will launch in other territories through licensing and JVs. Another area of potential growth for us is in producing Top Quality music programmes for live tours. We recently were asked to produce the programme for David Gray, who is a leading British singer songwriter, and the response has been very positive. We have since been contacted by three major organisations and asked to pitch for some key work.

TWST: What’s Jack’s unique selling point?

Mr. Smith: It’s the first men’s lifestyle magazine to launch in A5 format. Condé Nast have enjoyed success with Glamour in the same format. Jack is the first men’s lifestyle magazine to go in that format, so it is differentiated already by its size. There’s very little difference between the up and down market titles here in the UK – they share the same soft porn cover girls – but with Jack we’ve gone out with content rather than the cover girls as the selling point. Ad Age in New York compared it to a cross between early Loaded and National Geographic.