Does the proposed sale of Loaded signal the end of lads’ mags?

At the end of last month, magazine giant IPC Media was approached by a small publisher, Vitality Publishing, with regards to buying one of the original titles in the lads’ mags market – Loaded.

Although IPC has yet to accept or decline the offer, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if the publisher snapped up the chance to offload the title.

Back in 1999, when lads’ mags were riding high, FHM and Loaded racked up average monthly sales of 656,389 and 349,459 copies respectively. Now they sell just a fraction of that at 121,181 and 40,056 copies per issue respectively.

The “lads” these titles were targeting appear to be dying out, as they have perhaps migrated to the internet to get the same information. Instead, a new metrosexual breed of men has arrived – bumping up the sales of magazines aimed at improving their health, fitness and wellbeing.

With the demise of Maxim last year and weekly lads’ mags Nuts and Zoo haemorrhaging sales at a rapid pace, now might be the time to consider the worth of these titles to your store. It might prove more lucrative to invest more time in promoting health, fitness and style magazines to your male customers.