GQ and Esquire’s attempts to claim the higher ground are absolute rubbish FHM’s Noguera
Posted in General on 27. Jul, 2010
“GQ and Esquire’s attempts to claim the higher ground are absolute rubbish,” FHM’s Noguera observes “Esquire runs people on the cover that we would never touch. And have you seen the latest edition of GQ? I’ve never seen so many bare boobs and girls posing with their legs apart, or hands in their knickers. “There’s no particular conscious change in the way we are pitching our ideas (to the reader) – we have just the same level of creativity we always had.”The thing is we need to get more people to see Loaded for what it is,” deputy editor John Perry explains. Why? “Because perceptions of us as a magazine have become skewed,” he says. “We want to make a high-profile statement that we do think about things more deeply than a lot of people give us credit for.”The perception of Loaded is still that it has flown by the seat of its pants, Perry adds. “In fact, we’ve been more considered in our approach for quite some time There’s quality writing and strong ideas. We are a writer’s magazine.” The less charitable, however, might suggest that attempts by the editors of men’s magazine to project their “true” image better have more to do with the fact that FHM continues to outsell its closest rival by almost two to one.
Aside from the return of male cover stars, from this month there will be higher-profile interview, investigative slots, new features including a regular photo-journalism spread, guest columnists and new fiction.What’s also interesting, however, is that the original “lads’ mag” – Loaded – is also now attempting to refine its image. But the “lads mag” tag that was attached to them was soon extended to include all men’s lifestyle magazines. This was in part due to GQ and Esquire adopting many of the upstarts’ more brash tactics. But the result has been a blurring of the line between the upmarket and laddish sectors.”We were selling ourselves under false pretences,” Howarth now believes. “Where else would you have a product that looks like one thing but claims to be another? An Aston Martin that looks like a Ford Capri?” So, with sales now steady, the time seemed right to take the Esquire mix back to its more literary roots. For, despite premature reports of its decline (thanks to recent sales figures which indicated that the rapid growth of Loaded and FHM was starting to slow), the men’s magazine market is fit and well.
So why the apparent change of heart? According to Esquire editor, Peter Howarth, it’s an indication of the maturing of the market. Even Loaded editor, Tim Southwell, has said “he would rather put Kate Adie on the cover than Melanie Sykes, though that would be circulation suicide”.Loaded and FHM hit the ground running and continue to dominate the market, says Howarth. “Over the next year people who think they can only fill their magazine with topless pictures will find themselves in real trouble,” FHM editor Anthony Noguera observes.All of which seems a bit strange coming from a publishing sector renowned in recent years for increasingly salacious editorial content and booming sales. And while GQ insiders affect surprise at Esquire’s move, claiming their (GQ’s) own current position in the market gives them little reason to change, there is talk of “a problem in perception” in the men’s magazine market.At FHM, meanwhile, there is open acknowledgement of difficult market conditions – although the title remains the clear leader by monthly sales – and claims that each player will have to “assert its individuality” more and more. With at least three new men’s magazines expected to launch into an already crowded market in coming months, established players are falling over themselves to insist there’s more to their products than boobs’n'bums.
First came news of Loaded’s decision just before Christmas to end its babe-only cover policy.
Then the current issue, which contains an 18-page investigation on – no, not female masturbation or genital warts, but “The Meaning of Life”.Next Esquire announced it too is to ditch the now seemingly obligatory barely-clad B-list cover babe and introduce a range of editorial changes to more clearly differentiate itself. New Year has proved to be a strange time for Britain’s men’s magazine editors They seem to be having, well, a bit of an identity crisis. New Year has proved to be a strange time for Britain’s men’s magazine editors They seem to be having, well, a bit of an identity crisis. With at least three new men’s magazines expected to launch into an already crowded market in coming months, established players are falling over themselves to insist there’s more to their products than boobs’n'bums.
Richard Norman, who studies artificial vision at the University of Utah, said the system is “a very limited navigational aid, a far cry from the visual experience that normal people enjoy”.Dr Dobelle said the next stage of the research is to integrate the signals from the range finder and video camera more precisely, to give blind people some depth of vision to judge distances better.. “By replacing the sub-miniature television camera with an electronic interface, the patient learns to ‘watch’ television, use a computer, and access the Internet,” he said.One of the more remarkable achievements of the research has been to introduce the wires from the electrodes through the skin of the patient without causing discomfort or infection in more than 20 years that they have been used.The electrical impulses sent from the device’s computer stimulate the visual cortex region of the brain which creates the sensation of dots of light.A second patient who underwent an electrode transplant at the same time as Jerry was unable to see anything, perhaps because the 60-year-old went blind at the age of five and has “forgotten” how to use his visual cortex, Dr Dobelle said.Other scientists warned that the development does not amount to a blindness cure. I see dots of light,” Jerry said.Dr Dobelle, who published the research in the journal of the American Society of Artificial Internal Organs, said that Jerry’s sight is limited to a narrow field of view equivalent to 20/400 vision, that of a person who is very near-sighted.”Although the relatively small electrode array produces tunnel vision, the patient is able to navigate unfamiliar environments, including the New York City subway system,” Dr Dobelle said. The dots – known as phosphenes – are generated by signals from a miniature camera and a range-finder mounted onto a pair of spectacles worn by Jerry.The signals are processed by a computer on Jerry’s belt which is programmed to remove background “noise” and detect the outlines of objects.Jerry, whose surname was not given, has demonstrated his skills at navigation by walking across a room, pulling a hat off a wall and putting it correctly on the head of a tailor’s dummy “When an object passes by the television camera …