For Men Who Should Know Better
I do like the latter part of how Wikipedia describes Loaded Magazine, “Loaded was a men’s lifestyle magazine. It launched as a mass-market print publication in 1994, ceased being issued in March 2015, but relaunched as a digital magazine on 11 November 2015. The content was changed, with risqué material being heavily reduced.” – Wikipedia
Says a lot about the time and perceptions of the life around us. The nineties had begun with shows like ‘The Mary Whitehouse Experience’. Just an show of observational comedy sketches and monologues. The fact that the show was named after Mary Whitehouse, a campaigner against what she saw as a decline in television standards and public morality gave an insight into where the minds of the public was at the end of the eighties excess and declining cencorship, could it be pushed further or can we hold onto it.
The lad culture of the 90s was a phenomenon! Plain and simple, it was a time of The Word, TFi Friday and Men and Motors. Excess was still being pushed in 1994, we were in a post – acid house culture time of clubbing, drink, drugs and clubs, money was still available as the cost of living wasnt atually that bad. A magazine celebrating that along with football and pointing a huge arrow at satirical humour from anyone pre-internet that was involved in something was publishing gold.
Now i may have had my head in the sand, not read the right feeds but this news had passed me by. A collegue sent me this on Friday 17th 2024 from The Independent.
I cannot find the article online, just this about the death of Loaded back in 2015.
So it’s relaunched on digital again, (scroll to the bottom to take a look) Why? Will it Work? Who is the audience, the nostalgic Gen X masses? Who do they actually want to target, Gen Z, Millennials? Will the risqué material being heavily reduced even more? Was it just a magazine of its time that belongs there? Are there no new ideas left?
“Loaded magazine gears up for a ‘digital rebellion’ featuring original cover star Elizabeth Hurley”
The Daily Mail has run a piece on it with a damning title, and chosen the worst from the content and a cover that definately does not reflect the true nature of Loaded.
Can Loaded really make a comeback in 2024? Online return of bestselling title harks back to an era when rape jokes, body shaming and nudity was normalised in lads’ mags. – Daily Mail
“For too long, we been cheated by ‘content creators’ feeding us dreck and short-changing us with inferior morsels of cultural sustenance” – But isn’t that what the modern social audience craves? “Loaded was one of the original lads’ mags, famed for its coverage of music and sport – and its shots of scantily-clad women.” – Daily Mail
Proper Loaded, early Loaded never had scantily clad on the cover, not really inside either, well not that much. Celebrity interviews, nonsense articles, and excellent fashion editorials. Earlier issues feature numerous clubbing images, clubbing has massively changed.
“One of its initial 1994 launch editors, James Brown, told his Twitter followers that the closure was ‘a pity’ adding: ‘The last team seemed to have made a real go of it.’– Daily Mail
So I am curious what we are going to get? An online magazine, possibly behind a pay wall due to content or just to make it commercially viable as ads revenue will be important but the likes of Yorkie ‘Not for Girls’ type ads are few and far between? Alcohol and Betting websites sponsorship?
I’m hoping for football, but I’m struggling to think of a Gazza type character to focus on? ‘WHAT’S YOUR GO TO PROTEIN SHAKE’ or ‘BEST STRETCHES FOR PENALTY TAKING’ don’t have the same banter as ‘THE DENTIST CHAIR’. There are going to be girls in it somewhere but 2024 is a very different beast to the nineties. Then there was the content risk factor that was allowed or you could say tolerated in 1994. 2024 we have political correctness, cancel culture and Only Fans.
Will this kick off a modern revolution? I doubt it. Is this the voice crying out to entice change, probably not. Will it be good, will it be popular? Will it capture any of the old or original loaded feel? One things for sure it needs to be itself. If it copies, mimics, chases stereotype or just does not feel like it has its own voice, it may struggle. I’m hopeful, optimistically hopeful.
Here it is https://loadedworld.com
Well they have kept the tagline – For men who know better, Liz Hurley on the front as promised and with a 3 month free trial option, then a £9 a month subscription.
Design wise it looks modern, it looks good, not groundbreaking or risqué but web design isn’t now, and if it is then readers cant find stuff so simple and cool is good. They start off with the article on Liz Hurley, teasing news on the Strictly Confidential Girl on Girl Kiss. In sports, articles including the upcoming Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul Fight and How to Fight Like an Asylum Seeker and in Safe Space they bring back the 1997 Toast Olympics.
Its looking pretty good, as I said im hopeful and will be signing up to the 3 month trial, will I subscribe?
