Maxim Magazine Names Kate Lanphear Editor in Chief

[HeatherAnne]

Honestly I don't even keep up with her anymore... didn't even really remember she was at T Magazine...

Maxim Magazine Names Kate Lanphear Editor in Chief

MAXIM’S SURPRISE: After weeks of industry speculation about who would be named Maxim magazine’s new editor in chief, WWD has learned the job will go to Kate Lanphear, who is jumping to the title from her current role as style director at T: The New York Times Style Magazine.

Lanphear, who was poached by the Times in early 2013, had been style director at Elle magazine for several years, where she became a recognizable street style star.

The move is a major shift by Maxim’s new owner, Sardar Biglari — the multimillionaire who made his fortune with the national Steak ‘n Shake restaurant chain — to make the magazine profitable. The struggling men’s monthly was purchased by Biglari, of Biglari Holdings, this past February but has continued to see a steady decline. In the first half of the year, Maxim had the biggest dip among men’s lifestyle and fashion magazine newsstand sales, falling 33 percent in single-copy newsstand sales to 99,632, according to figures from the Alliance for Audited Media.

Lanphear didn’t give too much away about her strategy for the magazine, simply telling WWD that, “I hope to cultivate and broaden Maxim’s coverage of style and culture. It’s an exciting time for this boldly confident, unapologetic brand.”

Hiring Lanphear, best known for her high-fashion styling capabilities in the women’s designer world, may come as a surprise to many. Maxim, after all, was part of the “lad mag” wave of titles imported from Britain in the Nineties and, like them, became synonymous with publishing women in sexy, bare-it-all editorials under past editors Keith Blanchard, Joe Levy and the recently resigned Dan Bova. But the magazine’s September cover featuring Jessica Alba with a more refined feel (albeit one that had her clad in a bikini with a “come hither” look) is a small hint of what’s to come, said a Maxim spokeswoman.

Lanphear’s first official issue will be March. She will work in conjunction with Paul Martinez, Maxim’s current creative director, and is expected to begin building the rest of her team soon.

Maxim currently publishes 15 international editions and is sold in 70 countries worldwide.

wwd

 

[Scott]

i didn't either heather anne. last i knew she was still at elle but i haven't bought an elle in a couple years either. anyway,quite the odd coupling going to maxim considering its sports illustrated-type content. i wonder how much control she will have on its content and if so will it be viable enough to lure new readers in,readers who may have avoided it in the years prior?

 

[ALAUU]

Isn't Maxim the poor man's Playboy? So strange to see she's going to be the EIC for a men's mag and not a fashion mag.

 

[Benn98]

Interesting move. I'm wondering what fuelled the move fromt T, and whether it will actually pay off for Lanphear.
I couldnt spot a noticeable difference in Maxim's Sept issue, but theyre right, the Jessica Alba shoot is slightly more refined. Imo she should focus on the features and the online presence before tackling style.

 

[Marc10]

To be honest i'm far more interest in her personal style than her actual work, but yeah that's an odd move. I too always saw Maxim in the same level as Sports Illustrated and these other sleazy straight guy mag. I'm very intrigued to see what she'll do here. Maybe they're going for something like Lui Magazine?

 

[smartarse]

Looks like Maxim is reinventing themselves to be a high fashion mag. Kate the Great, lets see what you can do

 

[Not Plain Jane]

who'd've thunk it?!
well, maybe she can get rid of the rampant sexism in that mag. lol.
good luck kate! make it cool...

 

[YoninahAliza]

Humm... a very interesting choice in EIC indeed. Always liked and remembered Kate from her time at Elle so wishing her all the best even if I do think Maxim is built on sexism and sexist tropes. Maybe she can class the place up. Though, it may prove hard to do, I've always placed it in the same category as Sports Illustrated (for their model covers) & Playboy, and I suspect a lot of other people have done the same. It's going to take a number of changes to really get people to move away from this mindset.

 

[Benn98]

Maxim’s relaunch as men’s ‘luxury magazine’ falls flat

By Keith J. Kelly
September 1, 2015 | 10:28pm

Forbes loses two key staffers in a matter of weeks
Maxim sticking with 'luxury magazine' relaunch
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Maxim’s much-ballyhooed overhaul earlier this year by former T Style Director Kate Lanphear, who jumped from the New York Times to be the magazine’s editor-in-chief, is falling flat with readers.

Lanphear joined in September 2014, and her redesign was unveiled in February — with the all-important March issue — but the bold experiment has seen single-copy sales fall 36 percent in the first six months of the year from the same period in 2014.

Her hiring was meant to lure more fashion advertisers with a softer, more upscale men’s luxury magazine — and on that front the plan may be working.

The number of fashion advertisers has trended up.But downplaying the beer-and-babes formula — a demure Taylor Swift was on the cover on this year’s Hot 100 issue after supermodel Candice Swanepoel was on last year’s issue — seems to have left readers’ interest a bit, well, limp.

Where Maxim once boasted a circulation of 2.5 million at its peak more than a decade ago, its current 2 million rate-base is about to be cut to 1.2 million, sources said.

With the rebranding in trouble, there are rumors that another abrupt change at the magazine — purchased in February 2014 by Iranian-born financier Sardar Biglari for $12 million — is in the works.

While newsstand sales are down everywhere, at Maxim they have been in free fall. In the first half of 2014, sales were 97,008 copies on newsstands on average each month, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

In the latest six-month report, Maxim’s print single-copy sales had plunged to 62,200. Its overall rate base was holding steady at just a bit over 2 million only because it distributes 146,000-plus free copies each month.

There has also been a big turnover in the creative and fashion side. Sources said that Fashion Director Wayne Gross was the latest casualty of the upheaval this week. He could not be reached for comment.

Creative Director Paul Martinez, who was one of only a handful of editorial survivors from the pre-Biglari era, was given the old heave-ho in August. Design Director Matthew Lenning soon followed him out the door. Neither could be reached for comment.

Aaron Gell, the former editor of the New York Observer who was the editorial director, is now said to have been moved to the digital side of the publication.

The ouster of Gross was done despite the objections of Lanphear, one insider said. Before T, Lanphear was the style director of Elle. At Maxim, she successfully recruited her Elle mentor, Gilles Bensimon, the legendary creative director behind the magazine’s early success, to begin shooting covers for Maxim.

One source who left said morale is plummeting. Adding to the sense of unease, Biglari has been muscling in on cover shoots and seeking to meet the scantily clad models, the source said.

“There is a level of creepiness to him that is off-putting,” said one former insider, who also said the staffers always know when he is in town because of the heavy scent of cologne that trails him.

Biglari Holdings has its headquarters in San Antonio. As is his custom, Biglari did not return a call seeking comment. Biglari fancies himself a Warren Buffett-style conglomerate builder, although his publicly traded company has been underperforming the overall stock market for several years. He recently cemented his power by compelling Lion Fund — an investment company that he controls — to snap up 29 percent of Biglari Holdings’ stock at $420 a share, giving him control of about 49 percent of the stock.

“The mood inside is pretty grim,” said one source who recently left the company. “The people who are not tied in by a high salary are looking for the exit door.”

Lanphear was rumored to have snagged at least a $700,000 package to jump from T and so far is staying put. But if the magazine decides to do an about-face on its rebranding effort, it may create more turnover.

“We are continuing to evolve the magazine into a luxury, upscale publication following our successful and well-received rebrand in March,” a Maxim spokeswoman said.

Source: Nypost.com

 

[tigerrouge]

I never got the feeling it was working - given the unstoppable decline of men's magazines, the redesign alienated the existing readership in favour of reaching out into thin air, to an invented audience of men who are supposed to suddenly imagine "Maxim" stands for quality content, and who want pictures that look like a hybrid between Playboy and a women's beauty editorial. And any time I've seen an issue for sale, it had fewer pages than a newspaper supplement, so I certainly didn't get the sense advertisers were coming on board.

 

[Benn98]

I picked up the Sept issue with Idris Elba, and while I found it a bit disjointed but passable, I knew at the same time that the old Maxim guy mustve been a goner. Especially with that type of content. Lets face it, the American Maxim guy just isnt that cultured or worldly to appreciate the current mag. The redesign was too soon and way too ambitious. Male and female readers are very different in certain ways. I think because the market is so small, we are more conservative and loyal with our choices, while women are more prone to impulse buying and embracing change. So if their intention was to muscle in on the GQ demographic, well, that's not going to happen anytime soon. But this Biglari fellow sounds like quite the character, lol, requesting to meet the cover models. That sounds so creepy. I expect with him in charge, things soon will be like before the redesign, especially when Lanphear's efforts fail to bear any results.

 

[tigerrouge]

The redesigned magazine looks like a nice product, but I get the feeling it appeals more to me than it ever would to the traditional reader.

If you look at the worldwide editions, it seems the Russian one is sticking with the more traditional, tackier aesthetic of looking like a cut-price Penthouse, so it mustn't be under their direct control.

But I quite like what Maxim Mexico have done with their Sep 2015 issue, recycling a shot from the recent Emily Didonato shoot. It's more erotic than what was chosen for original US cover, but it's still a relatively tasteful image, and this sort of thing might be more successful at bridging the gap between the old Maxim and the new (magazines.famousfix.com

 

[Benn98]

Well, this was inevitable......

Maxim editor ousted after failed ‘luxury magazine’ relaunch

By Keith J. Kelly
October 22, 2015 | 10:47pm

Kate Lanphear — the fashion editor who was brought to Maxim to change its image and broaden its ad base — is out at the men’s magazine only six months after debuting a sweeping redesign that ultimately failed to impress.

She joined in September 2014 with compensation thought to be more than $700,000 a year. The new look — meant to soften the beer-and-babes formula by adding more style and luxury coverage — was unveiled with the March issue.

Lanphear was an acclaimed fashion editor when she was running the New York Times’ T magazine. But the new Maxim, even with its oversize format and heavier paper, never caught on with its target of young male readers, even if a few more fashion ads did pop up.

Newsstand sales tumbled over 40 percent in the first half of the year and were heading lower in the second half, sources said, from 131,000, down to fewer than 90,000.

Among her innovations: putting the first-ever guy on the cover, Idris Elba, in August. The issue bombed on newsstands, sources said, contributing to a deteriorating sales picture.

As a result, Sardar Biglari, who purchased the magazine through his publicly traded Biglari Holdings in March 2014, had quietly begun looking for a replacement over the past month.

“Biglari is upset that he is not seeing the return on his investment fast enough, and is forcing change. He wants the old Maxim back so he can meet the girls in the edit,” said an insider.

The magazine, which had a rate base of 2 million copies a month, was going to chop it down to 900,000 next year and try to attract more luxury ads and content.

Publisher Kevin Martinez outlined plans for a second redesign in a talk with Women’s Wear Daily last week — but he apparently forgot to tell WWD that the new editor was out. Martinez did not return Media Ink’s calls for comment.

It comes at a time of complete chaos in the men’s magazine field. Playboy, which at one time sold more than 5 million copies a month but is now down to just past 800,000, said two weeks ago it was going to tone down and nix the nude photos of women, starting in March.

Penthouse, which ran even more-explicit sex pictorials, is rumored to be looking for a new buyer, although its current owner, FriendFinder Networks, has not confirmed that rumor.

Biglari is an Iranian-born investor who fancies himself the new Warren Buffett, an investor who will stick with a company long-term.

Among his holdings are restaurant chains Steak ’n Shake and Western Sizzlin’. But insiders said he has no knowledge of how to run a media company and he often clashed with those who did. Biglari did not return a call seeking comment.

But the limited info on Maxim in the SEC filings does not paint a pretty picture. In the first half of 2015, its operating loss increased to $10.1 million, from $9 million in the first half of 2014. While ad revenue was up, the cost of doing business rose substantially because part of the redesign increased costs by putting the magazine on the glossier paper. One source said it cost an extra $12 million a year.

Most of Lanphear’s top creative and design people had been slowly forced out in recent months. Creative Director Paul Martinez and Design Director Matthew Lenning left in August. Fashion Director Wayne Gross exited in mid-September.

Source: PageSix.com

 

[marsnoop2]

I'm hoping we get to see Alessandra's cover still for the December issue.

 

[KateTheGreatest]

That's too bad, I actually kinda liked what she did with the magazine.

 

[Benn98]

I smell yet another impending re-design........

Maxim Taps Glenn O’Brien as Editor at Large to Replace Kate Lanphear
By Alexandra Steigrad
November 4, 2015

Maxim has named Glenn O’Brien editor at large. The role is essentially a replacement for Kate Lanphear, who was let go as editor in chief last month after six months on the job. WWD spoke to O’Brien about why he is called editor at large and not editor in chief, and he replied, “I can’t take that kind of pressure.”

Still, the editor noted that he would “have all the authority” as editor in chief, and that he was assured that no one on the editorial side would be hired above him.

O’Brien, who started at Maxim on Tuesday, will work closely with the magazine’s owner Sardar Bilgari to remake the men’s title to include more in-depth features and men’s fashion, aims that Lanphear held as well.

“Men’s magazines are more juvenile now. It’s like 12 ways to decorate your dorm room. I want to do something for a more mature audience,” O’Brien said, before turning to how he met Bilgari, the Persian billionaire who purchased the men’s glossy for about $12 million.

“Some friends of mine brought up my name to Sidar,” O’Brien said nonchalantly. “We saw eye to eye on things. We wanted to do really great fashion and get the best writers, photographers and illustrators. I see a gap in the men’s market.”

When asked about Lanphear’s quick exit and the pressure the editor had on her shoulders to remake the magazine, O’Brien offered: “I don’t think there’s a gun to my head in terms of getting results.”

The editor, who is perhaps best known for his 15-year-stint as GQ’s “The Style Guy” columnist, will continue to work on side projects, which include writing gigs and his new show on Apple TV for WME/IMG’s Made2Measure channel.

He noted that his desire to be out in the field makes him a “more effective” editor.

O’Brien will certainly have his work cut out for him. Last month, the magazine revealed to WWD its plans to lower its rate base from 2 million to 900,000. It also unveiled a second redesign since it relaunched the magazine under Lanphear in 2014.

Despite declining newsstand sales, which went from 131,099 in February to 95,471 in June/July, Maxim has been able to secure more advertising pages. According to data from the Publisher’s Information Bureau, the lad mag nabbed a 63.8 percent increase in ad pages in the January to September period to 246.51.

Source: WWD.com

 

[Benn98]

Yikes, I find this comical beyond belief!!!

Maxim’s Owner Reportedly Will Name Himself Editor-in-Chief
Adele Chapin Jan 8, 2016, 11:30a

Politico reports that Maxim's publisher and owner Sardar Biglari will soon officially be named editor-in-chief. Ever since Maxim ousted EIC Kate Lanphear in October, Biglari's been very hands-on at the magazine. His signature is on the cover of every Maxim right below the logo, and he appeared in a photo spread with December's cover star Alessandra Ambrosio. Politico's Peter Sterne writes:

A Maxim staffer said that the new masthead title just formalizes what has always been clear: Biglari exercises full editorial control over Maxim. At one point last year, the staffer said, he decided to throw out a nearly-complete version of the December issue in order to completely redesign the magazine.

Lanphear wanted to reinvent Maxim with a fashion-forward vision, leaving its lad magazine roots behind. Since her departure, Maxim returned to its original strategy of putting naked women on the cover in December, and hired former GQ columnist Glenn O'Brien as its editor-at-large. Politico reports that the next issue's masthead will list Biglari as EIC and fashion photographer Gilles Bensimon will be named to a senior creative position.

Source: http://www.racked.com/2016/1/8/10736230/maxim-sardar-biglari