Empire chief defects to Dennis’ Maxim

Dennis Publishing has poached Andy Semple, publisher of EMAP Metro’s Empire and Neon titles, as the new publisher for Maxim.

His appointment follows the departure of Mark Williamson seven months ago, who left Dennis to return to EMAP Metro after 11 months away from the company.

Dennis publishing director Eric Fuller, who oversees consumer titles Maxim, Metal Hammer, Auto Express and The Week, had taken responsibility for Maxim since Williamson left.

Semple says: “My remit will be to carry on building on the magazine’s success – we don’t need to fix what isn’t broken. There is a new team on board and I will be responsible for gelling everyone together.”

Semple will also be responsible for further international developments for the brand.

Maxim is already published in Greece, Italy and the US and is about to launch in Israel.

The title was one of the success stories in the last Audit Bureau of Circulations’ report, and recorded the highest percentage rise in the men’s market of 63 per cent year on year to 300,786.

However, its circulation still lags behind the market leader, EMAP’s FHM, whose figures reached 775,451 last August, and IPC’s Loaded, which increased to 456,373.

Dennis was forced to close Maxim’s sister title Stuff earlier this month because of a lack of advertising revenue (MW January 7 1999).