Millwall fans are famous for saying everybody hates them and they don't care. Donlevy seems to be have adopted the same attitude.The story published in Campaign yesterday and on Brand Republic reported that the magazine had sold just 24,000 copies of its April issue, an all-time low. Maxim's sales have been falling steadily for some time. It was selling more than 140,000 in 2006 and lost its last editor, Derek Harbinson, after a year and Greg Gutfeld before him didn't last too long either.
Back in 2005, it was selling 234,183 copies. Do you see the trend? No one is making this shit up.
Its last ABC saw a period-on-period fall of 27.1% to 78,463 copies and its sales are now said to be less than 70,000 according to yesterday's story.The email that Donlevy wrote has been forwarded to just about everyone, including all the "wankers" here. He is under the impression that journalists are giving him and his title a good kicking, when all that is happening is the decline of a magazine out of step with the times being reported.Maybe he should send an email to Mike Soutar, the man behind free men's magazine Shortlist, for taking some of his sales as he probably has, but not many. He also says that we should be writing about Arena selling "four fucking copies". We have, he hasn't been paying close enough attention. Why is anyone still publishing that magazine? Well, because of the advertisers it gave then owner Emap and current owner Bauer too. Well, that's their story at least. But seriously, who reads Arena?I digress, Donlevy attacked the article as "scaremongering" and then goes on to admit that "we don't have the final sales figures for the Mischa [Barton] issue... But it's fair to say it didn't do very well". Not sure how that can be classed as scaremongering. It is a dead cert, as sure as the sun rises, that Maxim's next ABC will be down unless there is a miracle, which are pretty much unheard of in magazine publishing.Anyway, take a read for yourself in full.
Dear allYou may or may not have seen this link. If you haven't, you may well do.Take a look and then read on...www.brandrepublic.com/login/News/806293/Basically, we've taken a bit of a kicking, but I want to make a few points to reassure everyone. And if any of your contacts or friends ask, this is how to shut them up.We don't have the final sales figures for the Mischa issue. But it's fair to say it didn't do very well. However, this story doesn't include the likes of subscriptions, so it's fair to say our next ABC will not be this figure!There's a reason for that. I hope everyone is well aware that we are trying to change the perception of the magazine from what it was before. It was made very clear to me before I started that this would involve taking a hit in sales to convince agents that we are the right magazine for their UK celebrities. Mischa was clearly not a cover that made consumers grab it, but agents like it. So this is part of our long-term plan.Eva Mendes sold well. Gellar is up on Barton. This is a one off, and as Simon told the journalist (although it wasn't printed) no-one should judge a magazine on one issue. I am well used to, for example, the Men's Fitness Jan/Feb issue selling shitloads and, say, May selling fuck all. Our ABC over six months is what's important. In fact, our next ABC is not *that* important, in the grand scheme of things. What we're doing to change the magazine will take time. We should be judged on, say, the ABC after the ABC after the ABC after next, not the sales of the April 2008 issue.I don't want to baffle everyone by getting technical but we are not at risk of being delisted by retailers, as stated in the story. The major retailers -- the likes of WH Smith, Tesco, Sainsbury's, etc -- back what we're doing (let's face it, our new covers are less threatening to their wholesome image than Lucy Pinder with her tits out). We won't, for example, have to hide our covers in supermarkets any more.Our print run has gone down. This is one very simple reason why our sales will go down before they go up. You can't sell what you don't print.The company backs what we're doing. Just as I was made aware that sales would go down before I started, so was the board, and so was Felix. This scaremongering story does not mean we are at risk.Trade journalists are wankers. They don't like Dennis -- never have, never will. So they will give us a kicking instead of reporting that Esquire sold 15,000 or Arena sold four fucking copies.While there's no denying April didn't fly off the shelves this story really pisses me off. Firstly, we have a long-term plan -- and the strategy day last week was part of implementing that and evolving the mag. Secondly, we still have a really strong brand -- the website is there for all to see and internationally we are still massive. Finally, for the first time since I started I feel as if we are close to having a team in place to do really great things with Maxim. If I didn't believe that, or didn't believe it was possible when I took over, I wouldn't be here. So let's concentrate on what we're doing, produce a really good mag (as we have been already) and ignore shit like this.Any questions, give me a shout.Michael DonlevyEditor
Dear all
You may or may not have seen this link. If you haven't, you may well do.Take a look and then read on...
www.brandrepublic.com/login/News/806293/
Basically, we've taken a bit of a kicking, but I want to make a few points to reassure everyone. And if any of your contacts or friends ask, this is how to shut them up.
We don't have the final sales figures for the Mischa issue. But it's fair to say it didn't do very well. However, this story doesn't include the likes of subscriptions, so it's fair to say our next ABC will not be this figure!
There's a reason for that. I hope everyone is well aware that we are trying to change the perception of the magazine from what it was before. It was made very clear to me before I started that this would involve taking a hit in sales to convince agents that we are the right magazine for their UK celebrities. Mischa was clearly not a cover that made consumers grab it, but agents like it. So this is part of our long-term plan.
Eva Mendes sold well. Gellar is up on Barton. This is a one off, and as Simon told the journalist (although it wasn't printed) no-one should judge a magazine on one issue. I am well used to, for example, the Men's Fitness Jan/Feb issue selling shitloads and, say, May selling fuck all. Our ABC over six months is what's important. In fact, our next ABC is not *that* important, in the grand scheme of things. What we're doing to change the magazine will take time. We should be judged on, say, the ABC after the ABC after the ABC after next, not the sales of the April 2008 issue.
I don't want to baffle everyone by getting technical but we are not at risk of being delisted by retailers, as stated in the story. The major retailers -- the likes of WH Smith, Tesco, Sainsbury's, etc -- back what we're doing (let's face it, our new covers are less threatening to their wholesome image than Lucy Pinder with her tits out). We won't, for example, have to hide our covers in supermarkets any more.
Our print run has gone down. This is one very simple reason why our sales will go down before they go up. You can't sell what you don't print.
The company backs what we're doing. Just as I was made aware that sales would go down before I started, so was the board, and so was Felix. This scaremongering story does not mean we are at risk.
Trade journalists are wankers. They don't like Dennis -- never have, never will. So they will give us a kicking instead of reporting that Esquire sold 15,000 or Arena sold four fucking copies.
While there's no denying April didn't fly off the shelves this story really pisses me off. Firstly, we have a long-term plan -- and the strategy day last week was part of implementing that and evolving the mag. Secondly, we still have a really strong brand -- the website is there for all to see and internationally we are still massive. Finally, for the first time since I started I feel as if we are close to having a team in place to do really great things with Maxim. If I didn't believe that, or didn't believe it was possible when I took over, I wouldn't be here. So let's concentrate on what we're doing, produce a really good mag (as we have been already) and ignore shit like this.
Any questions, give me a shout.
Maxim
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Gordon Macmillan
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