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New Emap Men’s Magazine To Be Called Zoo Weekly

Emap has revealed that its eagerly awaited new men’s lifestyle magazine will be called Zoo Weekly and will launch at the end of the month with the support of a major advertising campaign.
The title, which has been in development as Project Tyson, will be published on Wednesdays and will target males aged between 16 and 30 with a mix of sex, sport, news and entertainment (see Emap Set To Shake-Up Market With New Men’s Magazine).
Reports suggest that Zoo will feature several pages of news, film and computer game reviews, as well as television listings. It will also borrow from tabloid newspapers by putting sport on the pack page.
However, the magazine’s editor Paul Merrill, former editor of women’s weekly Chat, told the Observer that Zoo is not trying to win readers from red tops. He also insists the title will not cannibalise sales at market leading FHM.
It is understood that Emap has earmarked around £8.5 million for the launch and aims to attract 150,000 male readers within twelve months, with a view to breaking even within the next three years.
The title, which could be the biggest launch in the men’s lifestyle magazine market for a decade, will give advertisers access to a high-spending segment of the population that is notoriously hard to reach.
However, rival IPC is planning to launch a ‘spoiler’ magazine in the next few weeks, in a move that could spark renewed competition in the already competitive men’s lifestyle magazine market.
The title will be called Nuts and will target men interest in sports, news, television and women. The magazine will be given away free to more than one million men next week before going on sale on 22 January.
The lad’s mag sector has experienced something of a rocky ride over recent years and has come down to earth with a bang following its rapid rise to notoriety in the late nineties. Emap’s market leading FHM still sells over 600,000 copies a month, but the latest ABC results revealed declines for a number of key titles including IPC’s Loaded and Dennis Publishing’s Maxim.
Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk
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