Mumbo Report: Nik Howe slates men’s mags for falling into irrelevance
In today’s Mumbo Report from Studio 33:
Nik Howe, founder of online mag Buck, on why men’s mags have become irrelevant, his falling out with Fairfax and editing in a bubble.
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Did he borrow that shirt from Ben Cousins?
Why do you get an online guy to comment about print’s future? What do you think the bias will be?
(removed by Mumbrella for legal reasons)
I hate to say this but even Sport & Style has gone from plain awful under Nik’s watch to noticeably improved and slightly less embarrassing under who ever’s got the reigns now.
hmmmm Tim, ‘nameless’s’ remarks appear defamatory to me…
You may just be right, Sven….
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Sport and Style is a good format, however outside of the metro bubbles who is that interested? Men’s magazine Men’s Health is the only male title that has escaped the significant losses in recent audits, a title that covers many different aspects of a guys life and stays away from the beauty appreciation angle!
That’s where AskMen.com comes in……this site is a truly unique offering in the Australian market talking to the lucrative premium male audience on a daily basis, check it out!
This commentary is biased coming from an online guy who obviously has an axe to grind with Fairfax. Sport & Style has been improved recently not rescued as it’s business model is flawed with the massive wastage by inserting it into the paper.
I don’t see an online magazine format taking off either unless the ipad saves the day, the target of 100,000 UB’s is not significant enough.
WS
Far from having an axe to grind, and having spent over a decade in print, I still believe the magazine is one of the greatest inventions ever. I for one hope that we never lose the tactile experience of physically turning pages and anyone that says magazines are dead is a philistine.
However, Buck has been launched to intelligently embrace the changes in the way people consume media and to take advantage of interactive technology and new inventions on a platform that men are using more and more as their source of entertainment and information.
As I pointed out to Tim in my interview, I also wish the guys at Sport&Style the very best with their masthead. The magazine has successfully continued in the same vein in which I left it and I am sure will continue to evolve under new leadership.
– Nik
The T-shirt was donated to me by Roger Federer, presented to me when I interviewed him for Sport&Style.
The back of the T-shirt reads: ‘Jail Damir Dokic’. http://bit.ly/dkgxcY
– Nik
I think a lot of people pontificate on this site about the “flawed’ business case for Sport & Style. I think it’s worth remembering that it’s fundamentally (since launch) a good product and the fact it is now inserted into the paper rather than left in embarassing piles at the news-stand is a good thing.
I think we were all hoping S&S would do big things.? it had the distribution-ish, it had fairfax, but it seemed for me to be a tad whitebread, stiff, it had no ”GAME” energy, it didn’t say ”I’ve got to have it” its a pity it didn’t do this, if we can’t create an AUSTRALIAN sports mag, in what were told is a sports mad nation, then what does this say about the format and the demographic S&S were targeting.?
you wonder why they’d direct something like this to what appears to be an ABC1.? . Are they interested in sport.? I’m not sure they are.? the little ozzie bleeder didn’t see themselves in S&S and thats where the numbers are.? the trouble is, the advertisers in S&S seemed to be misplaced, i couldn’t see the point, i was like..?? what are they doing.?
isn’t there already another very successful english men’s magazine called “BUCK”
http://mensrag.com/2008/10/29/.....ne-launch/
There’s also a successful Canadian magazine called Big Buck – it keeps us entertained for hours. http://www.bigbuckmag.com/
Oh, so Roger Federer gave you that T-shirt did he? When you interviewed him? Wow, he must have really liked you. I bet you guys are Twittering all the time now. Any other celebrity names you’d care to drop, Nik?
Apologies for attacking the man and not the ball, but the dude’s asking for it. Douchebaggery of the highest order.
Nik, thanks for the clarification. I stand corrected.
“Attacking the man” behind an unlinked alias.
Now that’s a cheap shot.
Apologies Mister Mister, my tongue must have been in my cheek when I referenced Roger Federer.
– Nik