IT title targets male readers with focus on music and jobs

A men’s monthly lifestyle magazine, IT, is set to launch next

month, when it will be handed out free at tube stations across London by

former topless models.

With a print run of 50,000, the magazine will provide an alternative

male format to free titles such as Ms London and 9 to 5, as well as

challenging the booming male magazine market. The title will be printed

on A4 glossy paper, and is described by its publisher, Paul De Laney, as

a ’scaled down version of GQ and Loaded’.

The title, which was originally intended to be about the subject of

information technology, changed direction when De Laney realised that

attracting advertising in the competitive IT sector would be difficult.

IT will now focus on music, entertainment and job opportunities.

Advertisers signed up for the first issue include CK eyewear, Dunlop

watches and Underground Shoes.

The magazine, which is set to launch on 9 June, will be handed out by

the models at major London tube and mainline rail stations.

De Laney said: ’It addresses the man who doesn’t go out and spend pounds

3 on a magazine. Women buy two or three titles a month, but the average

man doesn’t. We aim to hit men who don’t buy lifestyle titles, but like

to read them.’

De Laney, who describes himself as a night club entrepreneur, is

investing in the magazine alongside an anonymous partner from the

publishing industry. Fourteen full- and part-time staff will work on

IT.

IT hopes to cash in on the advertising opportunities in the men’s

magazine market, where circulation grew 50 per cent year on year across

the board, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations figures for the six

months to December 1996.

This article was first published on Campaign