hey people, this is just an innocent question about a topic that I am interested in hearing your opinions on as I'm writing a piece on it and I don't really know what 'normal' guys actually think about this,
the question is:
Do you notice any discernable difference between men's magazines such as Loaded and the newer generation of 'lads mags' such as Nuts, Zoo and Jack?
If so what are the differences? and are the newer magazines 'better'?

Lil' al spouted:
hey people, this is just an innocent question about a topic that I am interested in hearing your opinions on as I'm writing a piece on it and I don't really know what 'normal' guys actually think about this,
the question is:
Do you notice any discernable difference between men's magazines such as Loaded and the newer generation of 'lads mags' such as Nuts, Zoo and Jack?
If so what are the differences? and are the newer magazines 'better'?

...

I'm just asking- I don't have time to go and survey a cross section of the male population as this is due in next week- was hoping maybe some of you could help me.

Lil' al spouted:
I'm just asking- I don't have time to go and survey a cross section of the male population as this is due in next week- was hoping maybe some of you could help me.

It depends what you mean by *better*. I hear they have added content, specifically sports related. Plus they come out every week as opposed to monthly so presumably you can get your fix all the more often.

Whats not to love?

Whats this "piece" on anyway?

I think Nuts is like the old 'Sunday' magazine, that used to be free with News of the World, with more tits and idiot bloke stuff. Loaded, FHM, Maxim etc. seem to be full on interesting stuff that you'd keep, whereas these new 'mags' are more like disposable shite.

The whole ethos of these publications is lazy baseline lowest common denominator anyway. FHM and Maxim are worse for pretending to be anything more than what they are. A complete waste of everybodies' time.

Apart from the fact that Loaded and it's ilk are monthly and Nuts/Zoo are weekly (I'll except Jack mainly as I know it's monthly; correct me if I'm wrong on that one; and ) not really. The only thing I've noticed is that the weekly ones have more sports coverage than the monthlies.

stoke_fields spouted:

Whats this "piece" on anyway?

I'm writing a dissertation on the link between negative portrayal of adolescent males by the press and their perceived 'underachievement' at GCSE.

Very useful comments so far- thank you very much- more are needed though :)

Do people still read Loaded? I was under the impression that it was dying a death- hence the launch of Jack- am I wrong?

I'm with stokes on this one.

zed247 spouted:
I'm with stokes on this one.

I love you, man.

I know I'm a chick, but I read them all, and they seem to fall into subsets:
Weeklies: Zoo, Nuts, etc
Original lad mags: Loaded, FHM, Maxim
Nearly porn: Ice, Bizarre, Front
Poncy fashion lad mags: Esquire, Arena, Jack, GQ.

Then you have your car ones,that I don't tend to read. It'skind of the same as the way women'smagazines are marketed, if you askme...

Two Words:

Max Power

Now there's a magazine....

Lads mags generally are complete tripe these days.

Someone bought me a copy of nuts (no really, they did) and the language they use. My god, it's worse than the daily sport! I'm sure it's written for 12 year olds. It would suprise me if it wasn't written BY a 12 year old.

...Most likely a chav too

neildeal spouted:
Lads mags generally are complete tripe these days.

Someone bought me a copy of nuts (no really, they did) and the language they use. My god, it's worse than the daily sport! I'm sure it's written for 12 year olds. It would suprise me if it wasn't written BY a 12 year old.

...Most likely a chav too

magazines like this are always read by a younger audience than the target audience, so you are probably right.

Do you think these magazines attempt to sell their readers a lifestyle?

what how to be a chav?? :haha:

Yes i'm sure they do try and i'm sure some people do buy into the whole thing and base their lives on what the mags tell them.

yes they do for definite. Men's Health seems to say what products you should own etc. i stopped reading it one i had wised up to that fact.

Bizarre doesn't have the advertising pretenses the others do, as its just grot and gore

I don't think magazines try to sell a lifestyle as such. They more 'cater' for men that want to be SEEN to have a certain lifestyle, like people that buy clothes with the designers label splattered all over them i.e. ''Look at me, I like fancy gadgets; I buy expensive gear; I only go for model babes; I'm sophisticated (lol); I'm cool, me''. To be honest, I have always found men that buy and value these mags as rather shallow. The kind that get sexually excited by bass boxes and amplifiers.

Hmm. It might be worth checking out any Mintel case studies.

This is a bit out of date but still I tried!http://www.marketresearch.com/map/prod/826134.html

I would search for demographics of men's magazines etc. Who they are targeting and how they've positioned the mag accordingly.

Failing that, stick a picture of some celeb's knockers in the piece you're writing. A picture's worth a thousand words and all that.

Kinky McFoxxy spouted:
I know I'm a chick, but I read them all, and they seem to fall into subsets:
Weeklies: Zoo, Nuts, etc
Original lad mags: Loaded, FHM, Maxim
Nearly porn: Ice, Bizarre, Front
Poncy fashion lad mags: Esquire, Arena, Jack, GQ.

I miss Sky. Did anybody else ever read that? I still sport a free wallet that came with one issue. Ahh those were the days...

As for poncy fashion mags I've recently weened myself off Sleaze Nation.. primarily because it not longer exists. Phew.

Alternate spouted:
Hmm. It might be worth checking out any Mintel case studies.

This is a bit out of date but still I tried!http://www.marketresearch.com/map/prod/826134.html

I would search for demographics of men's magazines etc. Who they are targeting and how they've positioned the mag accordingly.

Failing that, stick a picture of some celeb's knockers in the piece you're writing. A picture's worth a thousand words and all that.

I was considering buying that study but as far as I can work out it's American and costs an arm and a leg! Thank you though- was very sweet of you. :)

I've looked at the odd Ralph or FHM that my son's friends leave lying around. Probably more interesting than 'No Idea' or 'Women's Weakly' as far as articles go. Can't beat 'F1 Racing' though.

Mariska spouted:
I've looked at the odd Ralph

Ralph? Sounds like some sort of joke magazine from the Simpsons :)

Read something in Private Eye a few weeks ago about this. Can't remember which way around this is, but someone who worked on designing (sic) Nuts or Zoo jumped ship to a rival publishing company and used all the same ideas who rushed a rival out (released a week easrlier, too), hence the similarity. Apparently they outdid their predicted sales by about 400%. And the team that make Loaded are upset because they are owned by one of the publishing companies and they have had their sales badly hit. Rather vague I know, but if you want the whole article typing out let me know and I'll try and dig it out and PM it to you (I don't think it was massive).

Personally I think people think twice about spending £4 on a monthly mag, but 60p is no real dent, and they'll buy it instead of a paper because it's just the same as the bits of the paper they look at anyway. Never bought it but have seen FHM but isn't it just all adverts for watches and clothes that people can't afford?

I'm with Ben Elton on this one, lads mags are porn mags for people who are too embarassed to buy the real thing.

Alex DeLarge spouted:
I'm with Ben Elton on this one, lads mags are porn mags for people who are too embarassed to buy the real thing.

It's funny because it's true.

Alex DeLarge spouted:
Re if you want the whole article typing out let me know and I'll try and dig it out and PM it to you (I don't think it was massive).



That sounds quite interesting- I buy Private Eye but I appear to have missed the copy that must have been in- if you could PM me with it that would be great- but if it is lots of effort for you then please don't worry- I feel cheeky enough getting all of you to share your thoughts on stuff I really should have researched more about by now!

Thank you for all the comments- I may quote some of you in my dissertation if you don't mind- anyone who does can PM me and tell me so.
(This doesn't mean the comments should stop) :)

Alex DeLarge spouted:
Read something in Private Eye a few weeks ago about this. Can't remember which way around this is, but someone who worked on designing (sic) Nuts or Zoo jumped ship to a rival publishing company and used all the same ideas who rushed a rival out (released a week easrlier, too), hence the similarity. Apparently they outdid their predicted sales by about 400%. And the team that make Loaded are upset because they are owned by one of the publishing companies and they have had their sales badly hit.


Which is a bit rich considering Loaded co-founders James Brown and Tim Southwell spent a year prior to Loaded's launch poaching staff from potential rivals and luring them away with the promise of working on 'something different'.

There's absolutely no denying that Loaded was a very, very good men's magazine for its first couple of years. Talk about catching a zeitgeist. But, like many other things, its time came and went, and for some reason the powers-that-be at IPC decided that, in order to ward off a potential circulation war with the newly-revamped FHM, they'd turn it into a porn version of the Beano. Its core readership of intelligent, young, professional men who enjoyed drinking, drugging, and good times was replaced by spotty geek cunts who, as someone wrote back there, are too embarrassed (and too young, probably) to buy porn.

Private Eye...now there's a mag ;)

zed247 spouted:
Private Eye...now there's a mag ;)

Meh. I only buy it for the hot nekid chix.