First Issue Review – Ministry

Dennis Publishing and Ministry of Sound dance club have teamed up to produce a magazine which is “intended to fill a gap in the lifestyle market” in the form of a ‘credible youth title’. The result is Ministry, a magazine which is dedicated to the world of clubbing and its many off-shoots. Whilst Ministry‘s focus is obviously club culture (it is apparently written by clubbers themselves), the mag very quickly finds itself in the same territory as every other ‘lifestyle’ title currently on the shelf. The standard cocktail of fashion, sex, celebrity, sex, music, sex, drugs and sex is adhered to religiously here once again. Whilst Ministry is no poorer in this respect than any of its contemporaries, this approach certainly doesn’t help it stand out in the crowd.

The first issue features articles with Pete Tong and Judge Jules; the man behind the dance sounds of BT; a report on clubbing in China and, inexplicably, a homage to Burt Reynolds. Aside from this the sex quotient is kept high with articles on sex in clubs (with DJs, in toilets and, revoltingly, masturbating up someone’s back), sex aids and a regular feature on ‘sexual cock-ups’. All very amusing but more predictable than shocking nowadays. The mag’s style and events bible is the aptly titled Gospel, and includes rather lame ‘news’ events like the dubious discovery that rat’s brains shrink when they think about sex and the advent of silicone rubber sex dolls. The rest of the title is comprised of the usual fillers: reviews, competition and the gear to be seen in.

One thing that does come across quite strongly in Ministry is the underlying ethos of hedonism which club-culture embraces. The magazine’s cover-slogan is ‘clubbing’s only the half of it’: the other half seems to be lascivious pleasures of the body. And, let’s face it, you can’t really argue with that.

Ministry is a glossy perfect bound with an ad:ed ratio of 18:82 and features ads from Coca-Cola, Becks, Lynx and Pepe Jeans.