‘Lad’s mags’ made a big storm in publishing and marketing news when they first appeared in the 1990′s, bringing advertisers the opportunity to reach a whole new market of consumers relatively untapped by the magazine market: men.

Since the mid 90′s, the format has become a substantial market for the magazine industry, attracted an ongoing storm of controversy over its depictions of women and helped create the idea of the ‘new man’ – the paradoxical male who fits all the stereotypes of masculinity but also obsesses over high fashion, relationships and cosmetic products. In other words, the advertising industry’s dream demographic.

Yet for the magazine that started the ‘lads mag’ in the UK, the success of the genre hasn’t been maintained in the face of a growing number of competitors. Indeed for Loaded – the magazine “for men who should know better” – the success of its groundbreaking 1994 launch has been overshadowed by falling circulation levels over the last decade.

According to BrandRepublic, the original magazine for men has been suffering a steady decline in readership since 2000, where it started with an average six-month circulation of 350,000. By 2002 this had dropped by 20% and by 2005, 35%, leaving circulation at 230,000. This figure has been gradually eroded, dropping below 100,000 for the first time in 2008 – before hitting a new low in the latest ABC figures.

These showed that Loaded had dropped a further 26.3% from its already diminished performance, reaching just 53,591 copies in the first six months of 2010. Whilst this is representative of a wider trend in the mens lifestyle magazine sector – competitor and partner publications such as Zoo or Nuts also saw circulation’s plummet, whilst major rival FHM has suffered if not to the same extent (192,586 copies from 235,027 last year).

Now, MediaWeek reports that owners IPC publishing are believed to be in talks with Vitality Publishing (Womens Fitness, Attitude) over an offer to purchase the ailing title from IPC. Whilst no details have been formally revealed, The Guardian reports that IPC is understood to have informed staff about the bid and made steps towards a formal staff consultation.

If the bid goes through, Loaded will join several other IPC titles to be sold to rival publishers in 2010. Yesterday the company announced that it had accepted bids on several special interest publications, including Guitar magazine, The Railway and Web User.

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