Lads’ mags hoping for salvation

A whole new beast is about to stalk the jungle of “lads’ mags” in the form of EMAP Consumer Media’s Zoo Weekly. Publishing rival IPC Media is also about to launch a magazine targeting the same audience, with its title Nuts.

In the early Nineties, the launch of Loaded, FHM and a rugby scrum of me-too lads’ mags created a profitable new sector. The magazines also legitimised the “men behaving badly” culture, characterised by a taste for lager, lingerie-clad celebs, sex and football.

But a decade later the same magazines have flagging circulations and are looking worn and tired. The few attempts to reinvigorate the market, such as the launch of Jack by original Loaded editor James Brown, have had little success.

However, a burst of activity focused on a weekly format may conceivably do the trick. The weekly immediacy of news and features together with the obligatory toned female flesh is being regarded as a new holy grail for men’s magazines.

Emap’s much-hyped Zoo Weekly is aimed at men aged between 16 and 30. It launches at the end of this month and is published on Wednesdays. Rival title Nuts will be available as a free sampler from newsagents next week and launches on January 22.

Zoo Weekly is aiming for a circulation of 150,000 in the first 12 months and will be edited by Paul Merrill, formerly editor of IPC Media’s Chat magazine.

Emap managing director for consumer media Dharmash Mistry is expecting everybody from H Bauer to Dennis Publishing and even Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell to launch spoilers this year. A launch from Northern & Shell would not be a surprise as Desmond rolled out a me-too to Emap’s Closer when he launched New! last February.

One insider adds that with Desmond’s knowledge and expertise of the pornography industry, he will be well placed to launch a magazine appealing to the tastes of “lads”.

Mistry says: “Emap is uniquely placed to launch a new weekly title for men. We are the market leader and, if we put both FHM and Max Power together, then we own 70 per cent of the market share. When we launch a product we saturate the market so as to almost own the sector.”

FHM dominates the men’s market with a circulation of 600,568 copies (Audit Bureau of Circulations – January to June 2003). Although this figure is down on its 1999 peak of 775,000, it is still a long way ahead of rivals Loaded (261,937) and Maxim (251,117).

Zenith Optimedia’s press buyer Stuart Mays says: “Both IPC and Bauer do not have the budgets to match an EMAP launch. But what is clever is that the spoilers could well benefit from the money being put in by Emap behind the launch – which is effectively a new sector being created. I’ll be interested to see if Zoo can change the magazine purchasing habits of men.”

Zoo Weekly will be supported by an £8.5m marketing budget and Nuts by £8m. It is believed advertisers such as Mars and Paramount Comedy have already been lined up for the first six issues of Zoo Weekly.

However, media pundits suggest that advertisers are still unsure about the little-tested weekly format for men’s magazines. Emap’s Heat was initially launched as a men’s magazine, but after serially dipping circulation figures, the title was reinvented as a celebrity-driven gossip magazine aimed at women. It now has a circulation of 565,484 a week, according to the latest ABCs.

Vizeum press buyer Alex Randall says: “Women are much more magazine literate than men, who often tend to be slow to react to something new. But 2004 promises to be an interesting time for the men’s market.” He is, however, cautious about the market’s future and remains concerned that the men’s titles will struggle to reach their Nineties circulation peak.

A succession of failures were racked up in the latter half of the Nineties. IPC tried launching a food magazine for the Loaded market called Eat Soup in 1996. Early prospects looked bright with an initial bi-monthly print run of 70,000, but it ultimately failed and was closed. Cabal, original publisher of me-too mag Front, launched Mondo in 2000, but the title was axed within six months.

Top-shelf magazine Penthouse also tried to reposition itself as a “trendy” men’s magazine about chic porn in 1997. The magazine filed for bankruptcy in August of last year.

Jack arrived in 2002 – ostensibly aimed at the older male – but it struggled, reaching a circulation of 33,347 during its debut ABC period of January to June 2003.

Condé Nast has also tried to resuscitate the market when it trialled an A5-sized version of GQ for two issues in 2001. The exercise failed to make any significant impact. The latest ABC figures show a circulation of only 120,741 every month, down period on period by 2.2 per cent, but up year on year by 3.7 per cent.

GQ publisher Peter Stuart, who retires this month, says: “When GQ first launched, we only had Arena and Men’s Health to compete with. But both those titles have fallen by the wayside and we are lonely at the top end of the market. I would welcome more competition, but more choice means that some established titles may lose out.”

However, the industry is not predicting the collapse of any major players this year. Mays says that most titles will be able to hold on to respectable circulation figures because the new launches will create a buzz in the market, though he doesn’t expect a rejuvenation of the sector.