The supermarket giant is to conceal the magazines with "modesty covers", which only leave the masthead visible and are usually reserved for more explicit top-shelf magazines.
According to a statement from Sainsbury's, the move has been taken to "ensure that no offence is caused to customers who may object to the images or content on the covers."
Titles to be affected include IPC's weekly Nuts and monthly Loaded, Emap's weekly Zoo and monthly market leader FHM, and Dennis Publishing's Maxim.
This latest move by Sainsbury's comes after a torrid time for most titles in the lads mag sector. According to latest ABCs for July to December 2005, the men's sector as a whole fell 1.4%, with FHM down 10.6%, Maxim down 16%, Maxim plummeting by 16.2% and FHM losing 10.6%.
Latest National Federation of Retail Newsagents guidelines, revealed last month, urged stockists to show "sensitivity in relation to their display". These were reported by some media at the time as a signal that lads magazines would be banished to the top shelf by newsagents. But lads mags editors, including Loaded's Martin Daubney, said such reports were "misinformed" and no such move was likely.
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