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Loaded is a mass-market men's lifestyle magazine launched in 1994.

History

1990s

Loaded was founded in 1994 by Mick Bunnage, Tim Southwell and James Brown, a former deputy editor of the music weekly New Musical Express. It was first published by IPC Media. The title of the magazine is believed to be named after the Primal Scream song of the same name. 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. Brown's fanzine Attack On Bzag can be seen as a precursor for Loaded, as can music journalist John Robb's Rox fanzine, which heavily influenced Brown and Loaded with its frenetic style and humorous use of captioned photos.

Commenting on the magazine's creation, Brown said: "I was told you need 99 straight guys and one weirdo to make a magazine. I did it the other way, I chose 99 weirdos." Loaded captured the lad culture of the 1990s like no other magazine. The original editorial team, notably Martin Deeson, Jon Wilde, Tim Southwell, Mick Bunnage, Rowan Chernin, Pete Stanton and Derek Harbinson, defined the writing that came to be identified with Loaded.

The Loaded style has been cloned numerous times, most obviously by Emap's FHM and Maxim, which became the biggest-selling men's magazine in the US for Dennis Publishing. 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.

Loaded won the prestigious PPA Magazine Of The Year Award two times in a row, in 1995 and 1996. 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." 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. However, in February 2010, Loaded received an ABC circulation figure that was down "just 2% over the period," compared with what Media Week called "eye-popping falls" for its competitors.

Launch Deputy Editor and later Editor, Tim Southwell, wrote about the early years of Loaded in Getting Away With It (Ebury Press, 1998). James Brown discussed the title at length and the impact it had on '90s culture in the documentary Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop

2000s

Loaded was edited by Martin Daubney from August 2003 to October 2010. Between 2003-2006, Loaded won numerous industry awards for design and journalism, including 'best designed fashion pages' at the Magazine Design Awards, for a spread of dogs photographed wearing jewellery. Loaded staff writer Jeff Maysh won five industry awards for journalism, including MJA Feature Writer of the Year, and PTC New Monthly Consumer Journalist of the year.

2010s

IPC Media sold Loaded, along with SuperBike, to Vitality Publishing in 2010. In April 2012, Paul Baxendale-Walker purchased Loaded on behalf of Blue Media Publishing Group, however Blue Publishing entered administration a year later. Loaded was bought by its current owner, independent publishing house, Simian Publishing in September 2013.

Re-launch

Loaded re-launched for its twentieth anniversary in 2014 under editor Aaron Tinney. Tinney appointed self-proclaimed militant feminist Julie Burchill as a columnist and Lia Nicholls as Deputy Editor, making her the first female with an editor role at the magazine. The re-launch also saw original Loaded writer Martin Deeson return to the magazine. In a feature for The Independent Deeson compared Tinney to James Brown, the original "iconoclastic" Loaded editor.

ZIP Magazine

Previous Loaded owner Paul Baxendale-Walker launched a weekly sister title, ZIP Magazine in 2013. The magazine only ran for nine issues before being sold to Ooyeah Ltd.

Controversy

In the May 2008 issue of Loaded the editorial team had to print an apology to Heinz after claiming in an earlier issue that Heinz had produced a version of alphabetti spaghetti especially for the German market that consisted solely of tiny pasta shaped swastikas.

Columnists

• Julie Burchill
• Jack Dee
• Ricky Hatton
• Peter Crouch
• Martin Deeson
• Irvine Welsh
• John Niven
• Donal MacIntyre
• Ben Camara

References

1. Loaded magazine founder James Brown has joined Sumo.tv | Media | MediaGuardian Template:WebCite
2. Interview: James Brown, the former editor of Loaded magazine | Business | The Guardian Template:WebCite
3. All in the worst possible taste | | guardian.co.uk Arts Template:WebCite
4. BBC News | BUSINESS | 'Lad-father' tackles Viz sales slide Template:WebCite
5. "James Brown, Loaded (Inspiring Entrepreneurs - Hot off the Press)", British Library, YouTube Template:WebCite
6. Alok Jha: Lad culture corrupts men as much as it debases women | Comment is free | The Guardian Template:WebCite
7. The Guardian - Meet the man who wants to turn Loaded into a woman-friendly read
8. ^ The rise and rise of the laddery from `Loaded' | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com
9. GOOD Magazine | Goodmagazine - The 51 Best* Magazines Ever Template:WebCite
10. New Statesman - The dark world of lads' mags Template:WebCite
11. John Reynolds "Magazine ABCs: More pain for established lads' titles", Media Week, 11 February 2010 Template:WebCite
12. Martin Daubney: My Life In Media", The Independent, 9 October 2006 Template:WebCite
13. "I hit the jackpot - with help from lottery winner's auntie", Press Gazette, 14 August 2007 Template:WebCite
14. About Loaded, Official website Template:WebCite
15. "IPC completes Loaded sale to Vitality". Guardian.co.uk. 22 October 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
16. "Loaded magazine snapped up by multimillionaire 'porn star'". Guardian.co.uk. 29 April 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
17. Turvill, William (18 June 2013). "Loaded magazine publisher goes into administration". Press Gazette. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
18. Loaded has fourth owner in three years with plan for more 'stylised and subtle' approach
19. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/loaded-has-ditched-the-raunchy-covers--but-is-it-time-for-the-mens-magazine-to-just-let-go-9712964.html
20. "ZIP Magazine". Home page. OOYEAH LTD. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
21. http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2008/apr/07/monkeysdiaryfromthemediagu18

External links

• Official website

• Use dmy dates from June 2011
• British men's magazines
• Magazines established in 1994
• 1994 establishments in the United Kingdom
• British monthly magazines