Maxim poaches Nuts deputy to help rescue flagging title

Dennis Publishing has poached Nuts deputy editor Derek Harbinson to be Maxim's new editor, as the title battles to overturn a sales slide blamed on the weekly lads' mags.

Harbinson will take over from Eoin McSorley, who has been acting editor since the departure of Greg Gutfeld in March. McSorley will return to his role as managing editor on the title next month.

Nuts has replaced Harbinson with Hans Seeberg as deputy editor. Seeberg is currently associate editor for news and sport on the lads' weekly, which along with Emap's Zoo, has been held responsible for the downturn in the men's monthlies market. Nuts' average total monthly sales outsell FHM, Loaded and Maxim put together.

Maxim currently lags behind Emap's FHM, IPC's Loaded and Natmags's Men's Health in the men's monthly sector, and it has kept faith in the "no nipples" editorial policy instigated by ex-editor Gutfeld, despite losing nearly 40,000 readers in the past year, down to 185,908 according to the latest ABCs.

Martin Daubney, editor of Loaded, said: "Could even Mr Jesus Christ himself perform the miracle of saving Maxim? If Harbo does it, then I'll be the first to buy him a pint. No offence to Harbo, who's a top fella, but that job feels like the poisoned chalice, spiked with extra poison with said chalice attached to a car bomb. Good luck to him, mind. It'll be great to lock horns on the newsstands with a magazine that's actually coherent again."