Or at least this seems to be the way that Phil Hilton, the former Nuts editor, and now editor of soon-to-launch free men's magazine shortlist is leaning, which is refreshing.
He writes a piece in The Independent today that sheds some light on what we can expect from Shortlist (is it just me or is the name not quite there? By there I mean crap, of course, but don't really want to say, as I think Mike Soutar's idea is a winner overall and so am trying to avoid that journalistic temptation to be negative and knock things down).
I digress. Hilton writes that when he first had the idea pitched to him his initial reaction was this:
"I've been locked in a ferocious newsstand battle for three years in which the biggest single factor in winning readers was women, without clothes, on the cover, every week. If it was free, I say, thinking aloud, we could put all kinds of things in it... we could... put men on the cover!"
It's a revelation, but it must be liberating as well. The paid-for men's magazine market is generally a fairly low form of life (that said, talking of men on covers, this month's GQ is rather good, and it does have men on the cover – but it is the "men's issue").
Shortlist was initially codenamed Bulldozer (which soon changes to Alpha One). The name issue is clearly one that took up sometime and it seems, to me at least, resulted in a compromise.
"We could call the magazine 'Sandi Toksvig' and imagine it printed on Tupperware if we wished (it is, for a brief period, called Reporter). We need something to hang our thoughts on. Someone on the team needs the breakthrough moment, the flash of inspiration that will take us into covers we can test on consumers. It turns out not to be me. Gallingly, it is Mike."
Hilton reveals that Soutar comes up with the idea on the back on Nick Hornby. He gets everywhere doesn't he? But hey everyone loved 'About a Boy' and 'High Fidelity'. And he's right. Just this weekend I was asked for my top 10 list of films. I struggled for ages. Changed my mind, but then delivered. I then wanted to change my mind again. I know only women are allowed to do this, but when it comes to lists men are as well. There's a rule. And if there isn't a rule then there should one.
"The magazine should be called ShortList and it should feature lots of entertaining and informative lists," Hilton writes.
You can see the leap -- lists, top 10 lists, shortlists. OK.
In June, the group market research the idea and Hilton has a surprise or two, but it shouldn't be a surprise. Hilton is supposed to know something about men… OK teenage boys.
"It's clear we're on to something. These suit-wearing men-about-town are let down by the lads' mags, which they see as peddling smut for adolescents. They feel pretty strongly about it. I try to look scientific and detached and not like the former editor of Nuts. The surprise is their appetite for meaty, heavy subject matter. They really warm to covers with a current-affairs theme," Hilton says.
It's a shocker isn't it? Men what something they can get their teeth into and it doesn't have to be all about naked women. Well blow me down with a blow-me-down thing.
The dummies Hilton and Soutar have been producing sound encouraging. One to show investors had Osama bin Laden on the front and it is a "huge hit in the research groups". The shock continues.
Gordon Macmillan
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