Free Men’s Mag ShortList Grows
The new free men’s magazine created by former FHM editor, Mike Soutar, is to be called ShortList, and will hit the streets on Thursday 20 September.
According to reports, 360,000 of the title’s 500,000 copies will be distributed in London, with the rest to be given out to commuters in Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Leeds.
ShortList will be the same size as rival free magazine Sport (see Free Sport Magazine Launches In London), but will be printed on slightly heavier paper. Content will be aimed at 18 to 35-year-old males and will include sport, entertainment, motoring, travel and news.
The title will be edited by former Nuts editor Phil Hilton and its launch will be backed by a £2 million marketing push.
The publication, which joins the ever growing pile of free publications being thrust at commuters as they journey from A to B, includes GLG Partners, a UK hedge fund, among its backers, as well as film producer Matthew Vaughn and French Connection founder Stephen Marks.
Soutar, who founded media start-up company Crash Test Media last October after leaving IPC, where he headed new magazine ventures, takes up the role of chief executive in the as-yet-unnamed company.
Karl Marsden, who resigned as commercial director of News International’s News Magazines, joins as managing director.
He was previously commercial director of IPC men’s division, Ignite!. Tim Ewington, a research and strategy consultant, who has worked on print and digital launches for the Guardian, the BBC and Lastminute.com, joins as strategy and digital director.
Matt Phare, formerly creative director for Emap’s men’s portfolio, is the creative director.
Publisher of Monkey, James Mallinson, told NewsLine that the new entry on to the market has a real chance of being successful (see FEATURE: Start-Up Stirs Up Men’s Weekly Sector).
“Everyone has been crying out for innovation in the market,” he said. “There has actually been nothing like this in the market before – fair play to them. I think they’ll do a good job.”
Mallinson said the team behind the launch was “really good”, hinting that another big name was also involved. “Commercially and editorially it should be a success, good luck to them,” he added.
Sport, which was launched in London last September by Sport Media & Strategy, targets 18-40-year-old ABC1 men and is handed out weekly, primarily to commuters. It currently reports an ABC just shy of 322,000.
Crash Test Media: www.crashtestmedia.com