/ 22 August 2007

Who’s who in the lad mag zoo?

The rise of the metro sexual has seen not only men's grooming habits change, but also their reading habits. And nowhere is this more evident than in the enormous growth the men's magazine sector has experienced in the last few years.

feature men’s magazines

Who’s who in the lad mag zoo?

The rise of the metro sexual has seen not only men’s grooming habits change, but also their reading habits. And nowhere is this more evident than in the enormous growth the men’s magazine sector has experienced in the last few years.

By Kalay-Vani Nair.

There have been several new titles entering the market, the most recent being Men’s Health Best Life.

Launched by Touchline Media in May this year, it sees the market divided into the lad mag and the men’s lifestyle categories.

Zoo Weekly / Zoo Weekliks has also successfully launched into the so-called lad mag segment of the market.

Editor Margot Bertelsmann says its appeal lies not only in the spread of beautiful women but its ability to provide quick and easy information that the reader can share with his friends.

Bertelsmann says the magazine is about the “stuff” that men enjoy talking about.

“Zoo is the first weekly men’s magazine in the country, offering a bite-sized chunk of girls, gadgets, cars, jokes and gadgets in a manageable weekly format.”

Pundits had their money on Zoo Weekly’s success from the start, especially since the magazine is backed by financial giant Media 24.

But Zoo Weekly‘s runway success – they sell over 30,000 magazines a month – saw the fairly fast failure of its nearest competitor Krew.

Both mags launched in October last year. Krew brought its launch date forward by several weeks, hoping to go head to head with Zoo.

But in any publishing war, distribution is key.

With Media 24 able to distribute 150,000 sample copies of the new weekly as a free insert with FHM, Krew’s success was always a long shot.

And despite the earlier launch date and increasing the print run from 15,000 to 40,000, Krew shut down after just one month on the shelves.

Now that Zoo Weekly / Zoo Weekliks dominates the weekly men’s magazine sector, Bertelsmann says the challenge is remaining relevant to the reader.

She says as the segment was being created, male readers were getting used to the fact that they were able to buy magazines that catered for them.

“Now they know, and they know exactly what they want in their magazines. As they grow more demanding, we must create content to meet their more sophisticated needs.”

The growth in titles also illustrates the maturing demands of the male reader.

Men’s Health’s ten-year anniversary and the launch of Men’s Health Best Life clearly demonstrate the older male readers pull.

According to research undertaken by publisher Touchline Media, the 35 plus male market has grown significantly in the last decade.

In 1996, high income men older than 35 had spending power of R7, 1-billion; ten years later this has increased to a total of R18, 3-billion. This is also 21, 9 percent of the population’s spending power.

Touchline Media now has magazines catering to the literary needs of a male reader in every stage of his life.

Men’s Health Best Life’s tag line is What Matters to Men. The magazine aims to show men in the prime of their lives how to spend their two most valuable resources – time and money.

Of course it’s the spending power of these readers that attracts the advertisers. In the first quarter of 2007, the men’s magazine sector pulled in advertising revenue totaling over R36-million.

FHM earned over R10-million; Men’s Health attracted ad revenue over R15-million; Zoo Weekly pulled in over R2.8-million and Popular Mechanics earned just over R3.3- million.

So the advertises are buying into the segment, but how do the editors plan to maintain and grow their readership? This is the ultimate challenge for any publication, but perhaps more so in this sector.

Publishing Afrikaans versions of English titles has become a tried and tested method in boosting circulation and stealing readership.

Manwees editor Wilhelm du Plessis says there are nuanced cultural differences between Afrikaans and English titles.

The Manwees reader gets from this title, what no other English title can give him – content in his cultural context.

Du Plessis says it has been interesting to watch the definition of the male reader evolve from one of a lean, mean, power machine to a man within a context.

“A lot of magazines are purchased by females for their husbands and we have to be careful as to what we use on the cover. When we used a female on the cover, for example, our sales dropped by 2,000 copies. And she was a secondary cover,” he reveals.

For other titles, the challenge is more about staying relevant in this age of ever evolving technology.

FHM editor Hagen Engler says this is part of the reason the magazine has gone multi-media and now operates on several media platforms.

FHM Mobile provides mobile content – video, wallpapers, screensavers, text – via Vodafone Live. www.fhm.co.za also provides digital content to FHM readers.

“Multimedia synergy is now the only way to do business successful in media,” says Engler.

He cites the FHM Models of the M-Net show “Deal or No Deal” as an example. The magazine ran a model search in the magazine for women to star in the show.

“We cast the entrants, then selected the girls for the show. Readers could download images of the girls on FHM Mobile, and vote for their favourite FHM Model of Deal or No Deal on www.fhm.co.za.”

The magazine was successfully presented on several media platforms.

In the first quarter of this year, FHM recorded circulation figures of 96,361; Zoo Weekly recorded 31, 579; some 5,216 copies of Manwees were sold, Popular Mechanics‘ paid circulation stands at 37,248 while GQ sells around 24,000.

Popular Mechanics editor Alan Duggan says trying to meet the demands of a reader with limited time, without reducing content to sassy but ultimately meaningless monosyllables is his biggest challenge.

“Achieving the optimum mix of content can also be quite challenging. With

a readership ranging in age from seven to 90-plus, we have to satisfy a lot of different interests. So far, however, we seem to have cracked it.”

So they say they are successfully satisfying reader demands, but do the editors manage to balance their editorial responsibility with earning as much advertising revenue as possibly?

They say they do.

Engler says FHM does sometimes sell advertising against feature articles that they are planning. The magazine also “occasionally” writes articles based on suggestions from the advertisers.

“We have a good relationship with our advertisers. If it fits in with our editorial format we’ll consider it.”

Bertlesmann insists Zoo Weekly‘s editorial decisions are driven by purely reader demands.

But she does point out that the magazine offer advertisers a weekly, glossy medium through which to reach men with high disposable incomes.

“ZOO’s editorial environment is relevant to a large number of advertisers, who can use our dedicated sport, fashion, grooming, motoring, entertainment and other pertinent editorial environments for their brand building and retail ads.”

Manwees has been able to attract main brands without having to include editorial coverage, says Du Plessis

.

Duggan says Popular Mechanics observes the old-fashioned but essential rules about the separation of editorial and advertising.

He admits that there is a fine line between editorial responsibility and bringing in revenue.

As both editor and publisher the challenge is greater for Duggan, who relies on his colleagues to challenge him if they suspect he is being unduly influenced by the “money thing!”

But paging through any of these magazines, one has to wonder if the one page cologne advertisement has in anyway influenced the best beauty products feature for men; or if the double page spread on that luxury 4×4 has affected the best cars article?

After all, whatever their taglines, both the advertisers and the magazines are in the business to make money.