IPC Media is in talks to sell lad’s magazine Loaded to Vitality, the publisher of gay lifestyle title Attitude.
The publisher told Press Gazette that it had received an offer for Loaded and was pursuing talks with Vitality, which also publishes Women’s Fitness, over a likely sale.
“We have received an offer from Vitality Publishing and we are in discussions with them but we have no more comment at this time,” the spokesman for IPC Media said.
Circulation of Loaded has fallen sharply in recent years from its peak the late1990s, when it was an agenda-setting monthly magazine.
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In its heyday Loaded spawned a series of copycat titles and changed the shape of the men’s magazine market for a generation.
At its peak in the second half of 1998, Loaded sold an average of 457,318 copies a month.
That had fallen to an average monthly sale of 53,591 in the first six months of this year (a year on year fall of 23 per cent), figures released last week by the Audit Bureau of Circulation confirmed.
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Vitality Publishing has itself been the subject of a recent takeover. The company was sold by former owner Interactive Publishing to Financial One Securities for £421,616 earlier this year
A spokeswoman for Vitality Publishing: “We can confirm we have begun discussions with IPC about the potential purchase of Loaded. At the present time we do not think it is appropriate to make further comment.”
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