2 - Men Don’t Buy Magazines. Do they?

Tim Southwell, Bill Borrows, and Ben Marshall bicker their way through the origin story of loaded, starting with how soulless and try-hard the early-90s men’s mag scene felt and asking: what if a magazine actually sounded like your funniest mate in the pub? Tim recounts teaming up with James Brown via Leeds United and being on a Barcelona trip in 1992 that sparked the “best night ever” vibe the magazine would bottle. They salute publishing genius Alan Lewis for backing proper writing, discuss the stillborn versions of the magazine that never made it (“The Right Stuff” and “Rogue”) and explain how loaded’s radical design and focus on peculiarly British humour, icons and idioms helped forge its identity. Despite depressingly negative focus groups full of idiots, huge magazine company IPC green-lights the project for some reason but then drops the bombshell: You’ve got eight weeks to launch, we want a circulation of 45,000 a month and you’ll also have to prove received wisdom - “men don’t buy magazines” - wrong. What could possibly go right?00:00 Cold Open Banter00:17 Podcast Intro Reset02:24 Origin Story Begins03:43 Alan Lewis Champion07:33 Barcelona Spark Moment08:34 Britain Shifts Gear13:00 Taking the Leap13:54 Finding the Voice17:10 Loaded British Language18:48 The Shane MacGown Experience20:44 Building the Dummy21:11 Focus Groups Explained21:35 Behind the Focus Group22:49 Brutal Feedback and One Fan24:25 Why Focus Groups Fail25:50 The Execs Who Said Yes27:51 Loaded Culture and Voices30:28 Secret Project at IPC33:15 Green Light and Eight Weeks34:26 Monkey Tangent and Chaos37:03 Sales Targets and Big Risks39:01 Men Don’t Buy Magazines Myth39:36 Next Episode and Wrap Up