The end of an English institution
Nuts closure largely due to ‘tsunami of internet porn’
Nuts, the weekly that along with arch-rival Zoo shook up the men’s magazine market a decade ago but attracted criticism for their sexist portrayal of women, is now closed. It’s hard to believe, but if you need to see with your own eyes go to the site www.nuts.co.uk and you’ll see this:
Nuts launched in January 2004, just ahead of Bauer Media’s Zoo, and at the height of its popularity had an average weekly circulation of more than 300,000. However, both magazines have suffered years of sales decline, along with most other paid-for titles in the men’s sector. Nuts had a circulation of just over 53,000 in print in the second half of 2013, according to the latest official ABC sales figures, plus nearly 9,000 digital editions. Zoo, which has always lagged behind Nuts in sales terms, had a circulation of less than 30,000 in the same period.
Nuts and Zoo’s circulations dropped by one third year on year in the second half of 2013, after both titles’ publishers pulled them from Co-op stores. This came after they refused the supermarket chain’s demand that both magazines be distributed with modesty bags to shield pictures of naked women from shoppers. The retailer said it was acting on the concerns of its customers when it ordered Nuts, Zoo, Front and Loaded to hide their lurid front covers or be taken off its shelves.
Nuts and Zoo were defined from the outset by publishing more overtly sexual content than more expensive monthly rivals such as Loaded and FHM, which were forced go more downmarket in response. However, after 2007 sales of both weeklies went into longterm decline, not least because readers who wanted to look at scantily clad, topless or naked women could find far more risqué material online for free.
Nuts (2004 – 2014)
The closure of lads’ magazine Nuts is largely down to a “tsunami of internet porn”, which is in itself a reason for “slight despair”, according to one of the UK’s most senior female journalists. Eleanor Mills, editorial director at the Sunday Times, said the demise of Nuts was “a sign of progress” in terms of representation of women in the media, “but the reason it’s closing fills me with slight despair”.
“Unfortunately the reason why Nuts and those lad mags are not doing well is because of the absolute onslaught, tsunami of internet porn out there,” Mills said during a Women in News session at the Advertising Week Europe conference in London on Tuesday. “Why do you need to buy Nuts magazine when with two clicks you can see a million images of tits much more graphic than you can see in Nuts?”
The end of the printed edition of Nuts Magazine as well the website nuts.co.uk also means no more posts like these on All That I Love: Nuts 100 Sexiest Babes 2012 and Nuts 100 Sexiest Babes 2013. The two posts together have over 2,500 hits on this blog only in one week (at right).
Source: www.theguardian.com.
The Final Issue
Warning: curves ahead (+18 or NSFW)
As sales are dropping, it’s getting more difficult for printed magazines to survive. This month the curtain for the famous British Nuts Magazine also falls. Say goodbye with this final photoseries… Click to enlarge the images.
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