IPC Rebrands Its Lad’s Mags And Music Division
Magazine publisher IPC has rebranded its Music & Sport division in order to aim squarely at the men’s market with titles including Loaded, NME and Later. Having shifted its sport and leisure titles to the Country & Leisure division last year, the division will now be known as IPC ignite! and have the strapline “better men’s media”. Branding has been designed to be “competitive” and “masculine without being cartoonish”.
Mike Soutar, the division’s managing director said, “Of course you don’t become the most dynamic media hot-shop in the industry by simply changing your name – I wish it were that easy! – but it is a statement of our intent and an extremely appropriate place to start.”
The new branding and logo will come complete with some new faces. Already IPC has announced that ex-editor of women’s weekly Chat, Keith Kendrick, is to take on the mixed blessing that is the editorship of Loaded (see IPC Music & Sport Announce Appointment And Promotion) and a new publishing director, marketing director and advertising sales director have joined the company board.
Following this, last week the new deputy editor for lifestyle title Later was announced. Mark Sutherland, editor of the now defunct Melody Maker (see IPC To Close Melody Maker) will take on the job from today, with the support of editor Phil Hilton, who commented, “Mark is a great operator who has a fresh perspective on men’s magazines.” Staff writer Simon Lewis has also got a break, having been promoted to features editor.
Sutherland joined IPC from Smash Hits five years ago, and was features editor of NME from 1996-97. His editorship of Melody Maker included overseeing the transition from newspaper to magazine format as the title attempted to stop the rot just over a year ago (see Melody Maker Unveils Radical New Look).
In last year’s ABC figures, the men’s lifestyle sector managed an overall increase of 6.1% (see Men’s Lifestyle Market Makes A Comeback), but Loaded dropped 8.9% and Later had not been around long enough to be counted. The music sector saw an overall drop of 0.5% year on year (see Dance Titles Keep Music Sector’s Head Above Water). Within this, the other titles making up the IPC ignite! portfolio saw mixed fortunes: Muzik dropped 7.8%, NME fell 16% but Uncut managed an increase of 14.3%.
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