Loaded is a men's lifestyle magazine, now online. It launched as a mass-market print publication in 1994, stopped being issued in March 2015,Mark Sweney "Loaded magazine to close after 21 years", The Guardian, 27 March 2015 and relaunched as a digital magazine in November 2015. The content was changed, with risqué material being heavily reduced. It relaunched in May 2024 as a website.
The magazine's title was stylised entirely in lower case letters. The original version of the publication was often termed the epitome of a "lad mag".James Brown "Why loaded magazine had to die", The Daily Telegraph, 3 April 2015See David Teather "Father of lads' mags still loaded with ideas", The Guardian, 24 August 2007 among many other sources. The magazine was based in London. The brand was taken over by Dubai-based entrepreneur Stewart Lochrie in 2024, alongside new editor Danni Levy, and sub-editor, Darren Croft.
History Development and launch Marketed with the tagline "For men who should know better", Loaded was launched in May 1994.John Plunkett "Loaded: its rise and fall", The Guardian, 20 August 2010 It was originally published by IPC Media who committed to its initial development following a discussion between the company's executives and James Brown during a job interview for the editorship of New Musical Express, also part of the IPC group.David Stam and Andrew Scott Inside Magazine Publishing, Abingdon: Routledge, 2014, p. 60 In development for a year, Loaded was predicted to be a flop, but IPC considered it a low-risk investment because the advertising department of its Music & Sport division already existed and the promotional budget was minimal. IPC itself had little faith in the magazine; according to Brown the staff were initially only contracted for 3 months after the launch.James Brown "Loaded never really fitted in at IPC", The Guardian, 20 August 2010 Taking its title from the Primal Scream song of the same name, the magazine was founded by Mick Bunnage, Tim Southwell and Brown.Loaded magazine founder James Brown has joined Sumo.tv | Media | MediaGuardian
As the magazine was part of IPC's Music & Sport division, Loaded was going to be a magazine which combined NME-style music journalism with that of football. Then, when the first issue was about to be signed off, the publication found out that it could not use a feature about Rod Stewart and so the magazine's publisher Alan Lewis suggested that they replace Stewart with photographs of Elizabeth Hurley in her underwear, as well as adding a bit about fashion to help sell advertising space.
Speaking about Loaded audience in 2001, Brown remarked: "I knew that most of the guys in the country weren't like those other magazines, like GQ and Arena, were telling them they were. They weren't driving around in Range Rovers with very expensive Savile Row suits." He cited the irreverent comic Viz as an inspiration for Loaded,William Cook "All in the worst possible taste", The Guardian, 18 November 2004 while Holly Baxter has suggested that Playboy was an influence on the title.Holly Baxter "Death of the lad mags? Loaded magazine bids farewell", The Independent, 27 March 2015 Brown wrote in the May 1994 launch issue: "Loaded is a new magazine dedicated to life, liberty and the pursuit of sex, drink, football and less serious matters. Loaded is music, film, relationships, humour, travel, sport, hard news and popular culture. Loaded is clubbing, drinking, eating, playing and eating. Loaded is for the man who believes he can do anything, if only he wasn't hungover"."Loaded: covers from the classic years", The Guardian, 20 August 2010
The original editorial team also included Martin Deeson, Jon Wilde, Rowan Chernin, Pete Stanton and Derek Harbinson. The first issue, according to Brown, "featured stories on Eric Cantona, Paul Weller and a travel story about a man whose 'bird' was possibly eaten by a shark" in addition to the photos of a Liz Hurley in her see-through lace underwear" with the cover-stars on the first three issues being Gary Oldman, Leslie Nielsen and Elle Macpherson.
1990s Loaded captured the lad culture of the time.Alok Jha: Lad culture corrupts men as much as it debases women Comment is free The Guardian Deeson remarked: "I think we just caught some wave in Nineties, because the Eighties had been fairly miserable. Then we got into the Nineties and things started to loosen up a bit. ... It just seemed like a good time, and we just were part of it and caught that wave." The magazine won the prestigious PPA Magazine of the Year Award two years in succession, in 1995 and 1996.
Brown resigned from his post at Loaded in April 1997 to become editor of GQ.Paul McCann "The rise and rise of the laddery from 'Loaded'", The Independent, 19 April 1997 He was quoted as saying at the time: "I won't talk about Laddism and all that bollocks, that shows a lack of understanding of what Loaded is about. I'm not a 25-year-old loafer any more, I'm confronting new things in my life now and GQ will give me much greater scope... It is a natural step on." Staff at Loaded had mixed feelings about Brown considering him to be a bully while more widely he had acquired a reputation for heavy drinking and cocaine use.Tim Hulse "James Brown, The Latest Edition", The Independent, 5 October 1997
Circulation peaked in the second half of 1998 with monthly sales of 457,318, although FHM surpassed competing titles with a 775,000 monthly circulation. At the end of 1999, with circulation in the market sector now beginning to decline, Loaded dropped what was described by Meg Carter in The Independent as its "babe-only cover policy".Meg Carter "Lad mags are growing up. Of course they are", The Independent, 18 January 2000
Launch Deputy Editor and later Editor, Tim Southwell, wrote about the early years of Loaded in Getting Away With It (Ebury Press, 1998). James Brown discussed the title at length and the impact it had on '90s culture in the documentary Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop.
2000s Loaded had a circulation of 350,000 in 2000. The publication was edited by Martin Daubney from August 2003 to October 2010 with the sales supported by DVD girl themed covermounts and the price being reduced temporarily to £2.50.Martin Daubney: My Life In Media", The Independent, 9 October 2006 Daubney resigned when he became a father.Gerard Gilbert "Television choices: Fresh insights into teenagers from a lads' mag veteran in Porn on the Brain", The Independent, 27 September 2013 Between 2003 and 2006, Loaded won industry awards for design and journalism, including 'best designed fashion pages' at the Magazine Design Awards, for a spread of dogs photographed wearing jewellery. Loaded staff writer Jeff Maysh won five industry awards for journalism, including MJA Feature Writer of the Year,"I hit the jackpot – with help from lottery winner's auntie", Press Gazette, 14 August 2007 and PTC New Monthly Consumer Journalist of the year.About Loaded, Official website
After the launch by IPC in 2004 of Nuts, announced as the world's first men's weekly, Emap quickly followed with Zoo. Loaded changed its policy of a few years earlier and increased its depiction of female nudity. Standard industry practices for news' vendors were revised in March 2006 after an agreement was reached between the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Home Office following concerns that lads' mags were within the reach of children. The result was that Loaded found itself displayed on the top shelf next to copies of Penthouse and other pornographic magazines.Steve Bloomfield "Lads' mags banished to the top shelf", The Independent, 26 March 2006
The circulation declined: in the first six months of 2007, Loaded recorded a 35% drop in circulation compared to the first half of 2006.New Statesman – The dark world of lads' mags In February 2010, Loaded received an ABC circulation figure that was down "just 2% over the period," compared with what Media Week called "eye-popping falls" for its competitors.John Reynolds "Magazine ABCs: More pain for established lads' titles", Media Week, 11 February 2010
In 2007, Loaded was voted 49th in a poll organised by industry website goodmagazine.com's for the Top 51 Magazines of All Time, for the "Smartest, Prettiest, Coolest, Funniest, Most Influential, Most Necessary, Most Important, Most Essential, etc."GOOD Magazine | Goodmagazine – The 51 Best* Magazines Ever
In the May 2008 issue of Loaded, the editorial team had to print an apology to Heinz after claiming in an earlier issue that Heinz had produced a version of alphabetti spaghetti especially for the German market that consisted solely of tiny pasta shaped swastikas.
2010s IPC Media sold Loaded, along with SuperBike, to Vitality Publishing in 2010. Circulation figures had been dropping year on year by 26.3% and had declined to 53,591 at the time of the sale.Kate Magee "Loaded looks to revive glory days", PR Week, 18 November 2010 In the second half of 2011, the last year for which figures were known at the time of the magazine's eventual closure, circulation was 34,505 copies per issue, a decline of 30.2% over the same period in the previous year.Ben Dowell "Knocked out Loaded: men's mag suffers 30% sales drop", The Guardian, 16 February 2012
Vitality entered administration in April 2012.Mark Sweney and Josh Halliday "Loaded up for sale again as Vitality Publishing goes into administration", The Guardian, 23 April 2012 That month, Paul Baxendale-Walker purchased Loaded on behalf of Blue Media Publishing Group. Ian Edmondson, a former news editor at the News of the World then on bail, became editor in May replacing Andy Sherwood.Mark Swenet "News of the World's former news editor to edit Loaded", The Guardian, 22 May 2012 Loaded owners Blue Publishing entered administration in June 2013.
With new editor Jamie Wallis re-positioning the magazine to focus more on fashion, entertainment, music and sport, Loaded was bought by independent publishing house Simian Publishing in September 2013.
Print relaunch and closure Loaded relaunched for its twentieth anniversary in 2014 under editor Aaron Tinney. Tinney commissioned self-proclaimed militant feminist Julie Burchill to write a regular 'agony aunt' column and Lia Nicholls as Deputy Editor, making her the first woman with an editorial role at the magazine. The relaunch also saw original Loaded writer Martin Deeson return to the magazine. In an article in The Independent, Deeson was quoted as comparing Tinney to James Brown, the original "iconoclastic" Loaded editor.
The Co-operative chain announced in August 2013 that it would soon only sell magazines like Loaded if they were sealed in a plastic "modesty bag".Jonathan Paige "Co-op to remove 'lads mag' Nuts magazine from shelves because it won't tone down front page", The Independent, 8 August 2013 Unlike some of its rivals, the magazine chose to adopt the practice.Ella Alexander "'Nuts' final issue", The Independent, 1 May 2014 The following year, in July, Loaded dropped the photographs of partially clothed women after the lads' mag sector as a whole had faced opposition to their publication and display on covers from other supermarket chains, advertisers and feminist campaigners.Hannah Pool "The demise of lads' mags and the rise of feminism", The Independent, 4 July 2014 When a reporter for the London Evening Standard asked if the policy on female nudity had changed, a spokesman for Simian Publishing commented: "Yes — we're going to be far more discerning and sophisticated from now on,""Respectable street beckons for the lads", London Evening Standard, 2 July 2014
The magazine's closure was announced in late March 2015, the last issue being for April of that year. This issue featured Noel Gallagher answering questions written by Irvine Welsh, but conveyed to him by Nicholls."Irvine Welsh vs Noel Gallagher", Loaded, April 2015