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Not another feature on men’s magazines? You’d be forgiven for

thinking that you had read every possible word of analysis on the topic

Wrong.

There’s more, courtesy of last week’s ABC results and the markedly

different performances they highlighted for different titles.

In February, poor ABC figures for the majority of men’s lifestyle

magazines left the pundits convinced that the bubble had finally burst.

It seemed that the sector - which had enjoyed such unanticipated and

unprecedented growth for six glorious years - had reached its

zenith.

From Emap’s market-leading FHM and IPC’s long-term rival, Loaded,

through to Dennis Publishing’s Maxim and the National Magazine Company’s

Esquire, circulations tumbled.

IPC vowed to up Loaded’s marketing spend and sent its managing director,

Andy McDuff, packing. Other pundits attributed the sharp reversal in the

sector’s fortunes to increased competition from ’me-too’ newcomers, and

a waning thirst for ’laddish’ editorial.

It seemed that sex and nudity had had their day, and that millennium man

was looking for something more from his monthly glossy.

Publishers took the message on board. IPC had already produced Later,

its answer to the problem of men outgrowing Loaded, while Emap rapidly

reversed its decision to make the beleaguered Sky Magazine more laddish

and reverted instead to a more ’unisex approach’.

Everyone was in agreement. Laddism had had its day and new channels of

growth had to be sought if the market was going to continue to

expand.

This conclusion was all very suitable, until last week’s ABCs revealed a

new twist in the tale for the men’s market.

FHM and Maxim have now succeeded in producing year-on-year circulation

gains, while the unashamedly laddish newcomer, Front, from Cabal, has

returned a third consecutive circulation rise, implying that the fleshy

formula is still a long way from dead.

In this sub-sector of the men’s market, only IPC’s Loaded has produced

another year-on-year circulation drop, losing an average over the period

of 34,311 copies, equating to an 8.9 per cent hit.

So, were February’s widespread reports that the lads’ mag phenomenon had

reached its circulation ceiling exaggerated or is it just Loaded that

has found its own peak?

Alistair Ramsay, the managing director of Dennis Publishing, attributes

Maxim’s success to its careful positioning. ’We were never quite as

laddish as FHM and Loaded. By being a bit more mid-market and slightly

older, we are the natural place for their readers to graduate on to,’ he

explains. Maxim’s recent redesign was aimed at reinforcing a more

upmarket image, in a bid to protect itself from this perceived backlash

against lad culture.

Although Ramsay thinks reports of the demise of laddism were overstated,

he also recognises that it is no longer a viable editorial currency.

’Loaded stole a moment in time: it was so 90s. But it’s all over now -

you can only tell that kind of joke so many times. It’s time for

something new.’

Of course, IPC does not feel that Loaded is a spent force. IPC Music &

Sport’s new managing director, Mike Soutar, who, having worked for FHM,

Maxim and now Loaded, should know a thing or two about the sector, is

undeterred by his title’s ABC declines.

He concedes: ’Yes, we’ve got lots of work to do on Loaded. There’s no

doubt that the product has failed to keep pace with the changing market

over the past two years. But the next editor will have a mandate for

total change, to aggressively regain share of readers. It’s my

number-one priority in this job - to turn Loaded around - and I’m

confident that within the next 12 months we’ll see its ABC figure start

going back up again.’

Soutar agrees that the term ’laddism’ is outmoded: ’There aren’t many

young men out there now who aspire to being lads.’ Instead, he believes

Loaded’s renaissance lies in making itself more utilitarian. ’It has to

become more personally useful, down to earth, and less of an icon brand,

giving more value as an entertaining men’s lifestyle title and not just

a lad’s mag,’ he explains.

Some industry pundits regard the sector’s mixed results in the new ABCs

as merely symptomatic of its natural progression.

Simon Timlett, the head of press at Optimedia, invited comparison with

the much more established women’s magazine sector. ’This is just not a

mature market, unlike women’s magazines, which are suffering from lack

of innovation and therefore stagnating,’ he explains.

’Two or three titles taking a big hit doesn’t mean there’s been a

massive sea change in the marketplace. It just shows that the sector is

becoming more mature and starting to settle down.’

Laura James, the press director at New PHD, is in agreement: ’What we’re

seeing is the men’s market maturing a lot quicker than the women’s. Its

relative immaturity is bound to produce some ups and downs as each

magazine finds its readership.’

It was this desire to find its own niche that prompted Esquire to eschew

front-cover flesh in favour of a more cerebral tone in February’s much

publicised redesign.

The National Magazine Company was quite realistic at the time, speaking

openly about the impact that this kind of U-turn was likely to have on

its ABC. In theory, then, it is undeterred by the 29.8 per cent

year-on-year fall in circulation produced this period: even its own

press department makes no bones about the fact that ’Esquire expected a

drop of around 20,000 when we did the relaunch.’

But how do clients and agencies view a circulation decline of this

size?

One theory is that the publication is so important to the parent

company, Hearst International, that its future is assured.

Agencies aren’t impressed by this kind of decline, but the Esquire

publishing team’s open strategy has clearly softened the blow and

effectively blunted the criticisms. Timlett says: ’I’m not convinced by

Esquire but it’s an important title for NatMags and they’ll no doubt put

the necessary forces behind it to deliver either quality or

quantity.’

The fact remains that, beyond the FHM-Maxim format, it is proving

difficult to pin down a readership. It seems no coincidence that the

other product desperately seeking an audience is IPC’s thirtysomething

newcomer, Later.

After a fairly auspicious start - the first ABC fell just short of

pre-launch targets at 90,555 - Later’s second certificate doesn’t give

quite such a rosy picture. A period-on-period tumble of 14.9 per cent

can’t have pleased anyone at IPC, but the fact that two issues in the

six-month period carried expensive CD covermounts must have hurt the new

management team badly.

Unsurprisingly, most press buyers are keen for a magazine targeting this

audience to succeed, but voice obvious concerns over the product’s

long-term viability with such a low circulation.

Andy Martin, the press director at CIA Medianetwork, is not impressed.

’This is a problem that IPC cannot disguise. People clearly aren’t

interested in it in its current format. You’d expect the market to be

there as logic suggests the old Loaded and FHM readers must grow up, but

these people just aren’t buying Later at the moment. They’ve said

they’ll invest more, but from a business point of view you have to

wonder how long they will continue to plough money into it.’

Martin believes Later’s performance this autumn will dictate its

fate.

’If they come through the autumn and the figures still aren’t stacking

up, they’ll have to take a good hard look at it,’ he says.

One explanation for the product’s slow progress to date lies in the

obvious ability of newspapers and specialist magazines to cater to

Later’s target audience. ’Maturer men are being so well catered for by

the nationals that they aren’t finding the need to buy mainstream

magazines,’ James explains.

Soutar, however, isn’t convinced, and whatever the magazine’s detractors

say, he is adamant that IPC will not give up that easily.

’Later is here for the long term,’ he states. ’It has achieved a

satisfactory settle-down figure and we are confident that there’s much

more to come. The prize for getting it right is so lucrative we know

we’ll succeed.’

He also rightly points out that: ’There have been plenty of other mags

in this market that have had less than glorious starts but made great

returns through editorial innovation and refocusing.’

And if the men’s market does decide to grow up, the best could be yet to

come.