I heard Friday that Nuts, the UK lads mag which outsells Zoo in the UK, is to launch here. My initial reaction was – do we really need another weekly lads mag – one which features reality TV contestants in naked and near naked shots?
Zoo is doing okay in Australia but I suspect it sells better outside newsagencies. But then, maybe another good title will being more focus on the category and help us drive traffic in that part of the shop and thereby help sales of other titles.
A report in The Independent in the UK Friday says lads mags suggests the bottom has fallen out of the lads mag market. Stroppybird has an interesting view on this here. Given the comments of some customers in newsagencies I’d say she is not alone – these magazines do nothing for equality. I would not buy them.
This is a new market for Australia compared to the UK. I was talking to a couple of newsagents yesterday at the GNS Market Fair in Sydney about this – they told me that Zoo is one of their best titles and growing. So, as you’d expect, in some demographics lads mags are strong and growing. The challenge for businesses like mine where interest is soft is to work harder at finding a market. One thing we need to do is to draw a distinction between FHM, Ralph and Zoo. The weekly is a different beast and needs to be promoted as such. And through all this, one has to navigate their feelings about the product itself. Ah, ethical dilemmas.
Photo from Nuts UK website.
Talking about ethical dilemas.
When I prepare the cigaret cartons at home my 7 year old son ask me what is cigarret. I told him it is not good for his health so don’t smoke. He then asked me why don’t you stop selling it? What should I say?
Han, the answer has to be personal and from within. I don’t and won’t sell cigarettes. I don’t want someone else’s death on my hands. My newsagency exited the category in 1997.
That said, in a commercial sense cigarettes rarely perform as well as newsagents think. In around 50% of stores I look at, ROI is inadequate.
Mark