'Lad mag' rket in Britain gets a boost
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-08-28 06:49

A decade ago, Britain's magazine market was shaken up by a series of men's titles which offered an unsubtle mix of football, humour and scantily-clad women. Now a new revolution has begun, using much the same formula.

The "lad mag" revolution was started by Loaded, a monthly marketed as a sort of lifestyle bible for the hard-drinking, sports obsessed, avowedly heterosexual male.

However in recent years, sales of Loaded and similar titles such as FHM have flagged, with industry gurus pronouncing the format tired and out of date.

But now, British publishing giants IPC and Emap have hit on an apparent solution - similar format, different timing.

IPC, a subsidiary of the Time Warner and the creator of Loaded, launched Nuts in January, a weekly magazine with even more sexy and provocative content.

Emap was immediately on its trail, coming up shortly afterwards with Zoo.

According to the British Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), the new titles have gone down well with readers.

Nuts averaged 290,000 copies per week during its first six months, with Zoo selling 200,000 - surpassing by far both of their initial targets of 200,000 and 160,000 copies.

"Men's magazines are an exceptional growth sector right now and the future is extremely positive," said Eric Fuller, publishing director for Nuts and Loaded.

"The combined weekly circulations of the two new titles, Nuts and Zoo, have doubled the number of magazines sold to men every month," he added.

The last issue of Nuts included sex tips from porn star Jenna Jameson and an in-depth article on England football captain David Beckham, while Zoo celebrated the Olympic Games with several pages of photos showing models wearing low cut sports outfits.

"Men enjoy funny, quick, accessible snippets of information about their favourite subjects - women, cars, sport, gadgets and TV," Fuller summed up.

"The magazine (Zoo) is designed to give the reader a quick weekly fix of information that he finds entertaining, funny and great pub banter," Sarah Ewing of Emap echoed.

To appeal to readers, and especially to advertisers, IPC and Emap began by launching a price war, with both titles selling for just 50 pence (90 US cents). Now that they have managed to build up a loyal audience, the magazines can be found in kiosks for 1.20 pounds (US$2.20).

Clearly, the weeklies' success has encroached on the territory of monthly publications - sales of Loaded have gone down 10.6 per cent from January to June.

"There is no reason men should not buy as many magazines as women in the long term," Fuller insisted.

However the market is about to get even more crowded.

This month, German group Bauer launched Cut, a sort of tabloid press review, while British press tycoon Richard Desmond is reportedly looking into starting KO, a male version of OK, a big-selling celebrity magazine.

Emap, IPC and others are now thinking about other countries, especially France. "FHM France has been an extraordinary success and we are always looking at new launches," said Emap's Ewing, while Fuller noted that "men's interests are basically the same all over the world."

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