New Free Men’s Mag Arrives Today
The new free men’s magazine, ShortList, hit the streets today with around 360,000 copies being given away outside Tube stations in London.
The title, aimed at 18 to 35-year-old ABC1 men, is also being distributed in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and West Yorkshire, at airports and on Virgin Trains and Eurostar services.
Edited by former Nuts editor Phil Hilton, the launch edition has eight advertisers, including a double page spread from Adidas.
There are also ads for Michelob, Renault, Goodyear, Philips, Crowne Plaza, 02 and 212.
In his editor’s letter to readers, Hilton said: “The original idea came to us as we realised that the existing mass-market men’s magazines had all become a little one paced, repetitive…and wholly obsessed with the unclothed upper parts of the female anatomy.
“We quickly found that thousands of men shared our dissatisfaction with the titles they were expected to buy and felt that they were being patronised by magazines that treated them as something less than human beings.”
He added: “I hope this first issue shows a new direction in men’s publishing and an alternative for readers who have turned away from the current offerings.”
Living up to its name, the magazine features a broad array of lists, taking in everything from sports cars to what to do this week.
It also includes features on a sumo wrestling scandal and how to find your inner James Bond.
The accompanying website, which went live today, includes content not in the print version such as Top 10 Historical Biographies and 10 Football Stadiums You Can Live In. Online advertisers include Xbox 360 and Michelob.
The website also offers readers the opportunity to access a PDF version of the print magazine.
Earlier this year, James Mallinson, publisher of digital only men’s mag Monkey, spoke exclusively to NewsLine about the launch of ShortList, saying that it has a good chance of being successful in a generally troubled market (see FEATURE: Start-Up Stirs Up Men’s Weekly Sector).
“Everyone has been crying out for innovation in the market,” he told NewsLine. “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 said.
“What they’re saying right now is they will sell or distribute more than Zoo and Nuts combined – that’s a pretty powerful sell,” Mallinson admitted. “I can’t imagine the news went down particularly well at IPC and Emap.”