Lad’s magazine Loaded has been sold to former lawyer and adult film producer Paul Baxendale-Walker two weeks after its former owner Vitality Publishing entered administration with debts of almost £1m.
Baxendale-Walker, a millionaire talkshow host and tax adviser, runs the adult film company Bluebird Productions and has produced, directed and acted in a number of adult films.
He now says he plans to launch two Loaded TV Channels and run more page-three-style content in the magazine.
Vitality went into administration after running up a bill of almost £1m with creditors, with Cooper Young appointed to sell off Vitality’s publishing assets.
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The company, which had previously sold off Women’s Fitness and gay lifestyle magazine Attitude, acquired Loaded and three other titles from IPC Publishing in 2010.
Financial figures for the publisher filed at Companies House show revenues of £4.2m and a pre-tax profit of £30,858 in the nine months to the end of September, with the company owing creditors £976,819.
Baxendale-Walker told The Guardian he plans to use the magazine to marry his adult businesses with his mainstream media interests
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He was quoted saying: “There are very good synergies between Loaded, the brand and assets and the multimedia companies that I already own
“Loaded is a lifestyle magazine. I guess I live the Loaded lifestyle. Girls, cars, money, helicopters and fun, fun, fun.
Baxendale-Walker said it was a ‘series of misfortunes’that brought the magazine into administration, telling The Guardian: “It is profitable, it is viable. Bluebird’s assets and experience are at the sharp end of the market, if you will. Injecting it into Loaded will put it in the stratosphere but I will keep the essence of it – I have an affinity for the Loaded DNA.”
The most recent ABC figures for Loaded show circulation was down 30 per cent to 34,505.
In common with most other Lads’ Mag titles, circulation has collapsed in recent years. In 2000 it had a monthly sale of over 350,000.
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