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In the UK, Loaded's
search to find itself
Bold makeover for very first of the lads magazines
By Heidi Dawley
It was the bible of the lager-swilling lout, an
icon-busting new entrant that created a whole new genre of magazines, the
lad titles. It led the way among British magazines in promoting hedonism
and reaffirming to young men that sex, booze and crazy pranks--the dumber
the better--were what life was about. As the magazine’s first editor,
James Brown, wrote, “Loaded is for the man who believes he can do
anything, if only he wasn't hung over.”
Or so it was. Today the once top-selling lads title has
slumped to sixth place in the men's category, with a circulation of just
220,057, less than half the 450,000-plus of its peak in 1998.
To recapture the magazine’s grander past, parent IPC Ignite
has invested $3.7 million in a dramatic makeover with the May issue while
slashing its cover price by nearly $1.65 for the June issue.
“The new content means the magazine is stronger, and the
lower price gives men a reason to try it,” says Niall McKinney,
publishing director for Loaded. McKinney is confident that the makeover
will revive its circulation, and he's so confident, in fact, that he's
guaranteed a circulation increase to advertisers.
But the question is, will all this be enough? Can Loaded be
redeemed?
The men’s magazine category was already suffering, thanks to its
maturity (in age, not content). Then last year it took another major hit
when IPC and Emap both launched weeklies into the category. By the end of
the year these two weekly magazines together were selling over 500,000
issues a week.
Loaded was among the worst hit by the new entrants. In the
second half of 2004 the magazine’s circulation fell 6 percent compared
with the first half of the year and was down 16 percent compared with the same
period in 2003.
“They are suffering more than other men’s magazines,”
observes Claudine Collins, press director at MediaCom in London. “They
were the most salacious in the category, and so are the weeklies. So they
were hit most by the weeklies.”
But Collins believes the magazine’s problems actually began
before the weeklies arrived. Loaded had lost its way to some other men’s
magazines including FHM, which came in with a well-defined editorial
mission and created a great brand. Says Collins: "Loaded lost its
direction. It didn’t really know what it stood for."
McKinney, Loaded’s publisher, has a slightly different take
on what went wrong. For one thing he doesn’t see the problem as stemming
from the launch of weeklies.
It's not the competition but the readers themselves who are the
issue. Extensive research tells McKinney precisely this: “Men
have changed. The magazines didn’t,” he says. This explains, he
believes, the 39 percent fall in circulation in the monthly men’s
category over the last five years.
In news that will surely shock the women of the UK, and what must
seem counterintuitive to anyone who's even looked at the new successful
men's weeklies, young British men are now a bit more sensible than
the lager swilling louts of the '90s, says McKinney. For the new lad, Levis
and pure hedonism are out, Versace and ambition are in.
Ten years ago surveys showed the readers’ heroes were men who
squandered their talent. McKinney says the new lads’ heroes now are
successful, talented men. Men are more materialistic now, more interested
in image and in going to the gym, says McKinney. “Lots of attitudes to
life have changed, and the magazines hadn’t taken that into
account."
What’s more, in the internet age, men expect to be able to
navigate through a magazine more quickly and easily than their
pre-internet brethren did. So Loaded has been revamped with improved
navigation, a larger girl-packed centerfold section, and new sections on
video games and going out.
While the core of the magazine will still be about a zest for life
and enjoying the hedonistic aspects of life, the magazine will have more
depth, like the new lads, says McKinney.
He says he already has reason to believe the makeover is working.
The first redesigned issue sold out on the newsstand, and he says the
presses were switched back on to print additional issues.
Media people have yet to be convinced but they say the makeover
will help to some extent.
“The price cut will put them closer to the price of
the weeklies. One of the main problems causing the declining circulation
was the weeklies,” believes Natalie Rutherford, press manager at Vizeum,
a planning and buying arm of Aegis.
"It should help, but whether this will get them back to
where they were previously, I’m not sure.”
MediaCom's Collins believes the guarantees on
circulation may well help bring in ads: “It will make the magazine a
safer buy.”
But the only way long-term success will come for the magazine is if
lads, too, find the magazine a better buy. And as we know, lads can be
fickle and faithless lot, as Loaded itself can attest.
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May 10, 2005
©
2005
Media Life
- Heidi Dawley, and American living
in London, covers European media for Media Life.
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