Feature: Bringing The Magic Back To The Men’s Market

There’s certainly no shortage of lad’s mags on the market, but the sector that was once booming appears to have fallen on hard times. The majority of titles saw circulation decline in the July-December 2001 ABC results and it seems unlikely that anyone would put money on the magic returning.

James Brown’s I Feel Good Publishing disagrees and is about to launch a new title in to the sector, which, according to IFG’s commercial director, Bruce Sandell, still has a lot to offer advertisers. The eagerly awaited Jack is positioning itself as a magazine for the “intelligent, style-conscious male” and appears to be steering clear of the traditional booze and boobs formula that boosted sales during the height of the lad’s mag craze in the late nineties.

According to Sandell, the days of the traditional lad’s mag are numbered. The sector’s highest circulating titles, FHM, Loaded and Maxim, saw sales fall during the second half of 2001 and over the last year IPC’s Later, Emap’s Sky and Condé Nast’s GQ Active have all gone under. Sandell says: “The sector has been suffering from a lack of innovation and this has led to falling sales and closures. However, the days of three or four titles controlling the market are over. Consumers and advertisers are demanding more choice and as the market stabilises there will be significant room for growth within the sector.”

The men’s market is certainly a long way from the glory days of the late nineties, FHM was selling in excess of 700,000 and Loaded over 450,000 (see below). Both titles reported more sobering figures in the latest ABCs, with FHM sitting at just over 570,000 and Loaded at a shade above 300,000. However, the need for change seems to have been recognised and Emap, the UK’s largest men’s magazine publisher, is about to release the results of an independent research study into the attitudes and lifestyles of men, which it commissioned to gain a better understanding of its male consumers.

Sandell predicts the sector’s higher circulating titles will continue to see sales fall as the demand for innovation causes the market to fragment. July to December’s ABC figures seem to corroborate this theory, with smaller titles such as Emap’s Arena, Cabal’s Front and Natmag’s Esquire all seeing circulation increase modestly.

IFG is planning to cash in on the fragmentation of the market and while Jack’s initial ABC, due in 2003, is only being placed at around 100,000, Sandell says that “aspirations are much higher.” IFG is confident that Jack can breathe new life into the men’s magazine market and Sandell claims: “The sector still has a great deal of potential. Growth is expected over the next five years and we are convinced that we are bringing something new to the market.”

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