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April 30, 2014updated 10 Jul 2014 2:05pm

The demise of the lads’ mags

By Dominic Ponsford

IPC Media has confirmed the end of Nuts as both a magazine and website 10 years after its launch.

Some 25 staff are affected by the demise of the lads’ magazine. Circulation of the title has fallen from a peak of 300,000 a week in 2005 to 53,342 in the second half of last year (down 33.5 per cent year on year).

Last year the title was banned by the Co-op which said its front pages were too explicit. But the end of the magazine is part of wider trend which has seen the wholesale demise of 'lads' mags'.

Rival weekly Zoo, which also launched in 2004, has a current ABC of 29,521, down 33 per cent year on year.

According to owner IPC Media, Nuts had a combined print and digital audience of 1.3m a week.

The last magazine issue hit newsstands yesterday with a weeping Lucy Pinder as its cover star. The first issue of Nuts published on 22 January 2004 featured model Nell McAndrew.

According to IPC Media, Nuts sold more than 100 million copies over its 10-year history.

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Here’s what the leading men’s magazines were selling in the first half of 2005 (the high water mark of the sector) and how they are doing now:

  • FHM: 560,167 – current ABC of 96,452
     
  • Nuts: 304,751 – now closed
     
  • Zoo: 260,317 – current ABC of 29,521
     
  • Loaded: 237,083 – no longer audited by ABC, believed to be still in print
     
  • Men’s Health: 228,108 – current ABC 203,053
     
  • Maxim: 227,377 – closed in 2009
     
  • GQ: 125,050 – current ABC 114,867
     
  • Front: 88,154 – print edition closed in February this year
     
  • Esquire: 63,605 – 55,011
     
  • Arena: 46,680 – closed in 2009.

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