Loaded (magazine)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Loaded
Editor-in-Chief	Martin Daubney
Categories	Men's magazines
Frequency	Monthly
Publisher	IPC Media
First issue	1994
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Website	www.loaded.co.uk

Loaded, first published by IPC in 1994, is a British magazine for men that is considered to be the "original lads' mag".^[1][2] Its motto is "For men who should know better".^[3]

Contents 1 History 2 Loaded today 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] History

Loaded was founded in 1994 by James Brown,^[4] a former deputy editor of the music weekly New Musical Express.^[5] In its early days, the magazine's readership was once memorably described as "50% Sun readers and 50% Guardian readers". Brown has described the irreverent comic Viz as an inspiration for Loaded^[6] (and he later bought the comic when he founded the company I Feel Good).^[7]

Loaded captured the lad culture^[8] of the 1990s like no other magazine;^[9] its glorification of British male "rogues" (Liam Gallagher, Oliver Reed, Paul Gascoigne etc.) was only outstripped by its fondness for titillating photoshoots with nubile C-, B-, and occasionally A-list celebrities. However, early covers led on male icons for film and TV - Gary Oldman was on the first cover.^[9]

The Loaded style has been cloned numerous times, most obviously by Emap's FHM^[10] and Maxim,^[10] which became the biggest-selling men's magazine in the US for Dennis Publishing. An offshoot, Eat Soup, quickly failed however. Loaded also influenced women's monthlies, with Emap launching Minx, "For girls with a lust for life". In January 2004, IPC launched the weekly Nuts, announced as the world's first men's weekly, and Emap quickly followed with Zoo.

In 2007, Loaded was voted 49th in Industry website goodmagazine.com's Top 51 Magazines of All Time list, for the "Smartest, Prettiest, Coolest, Funniest, Most Influential, Most Necessary, Most Important, Most Essential, etc." ^[11] Despite its influence, sales have dropped in recent years. In the first six months of 2007, Loaded recorded a 35% drop in circulation compared to the first half of 2006.^[9]

Deputy editor Tim Southwell (Brown's former boss at New Musical Express) wrote about the early years of Loaded in Getting Away With It (Ebury Press, 1998).

[edit] Loaded today

Today, Loaded is edited by Martin Daubney, who was behind the title's relaunch in April of 2005 and is now the longest-serving editor of the title, having been in the job since August 2003.^[12]

[edit] See also

• IPC Media

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Loaded information page
• Loaded official site
• Loaded: the lad's mag
• James Brown talks about setting up Loaded