Lads' weeklies Zoo and Nuts to take on might of The Sun

by Sam Matthews, Brand Republic 13-Jun-05, 09:00

LONDON - There is fresh speculation that Emap's Zoo and IPC Media's Nuts may go twice weekly as the lads' titles are squeezing readers from the tabloids.

Reports over the weekend hint that at least one of the two lads' mags will go twice weekly, although Emap and IPC Media deny the rumours.

If Zoo or Nuts went twice weekly the sector would take even more readers away from the red-top tabloids, with The Sun in particular feeling the heat from the growing powers of the boys' weeklies.

The Sun continued to struggle in Friday's ABCs with a drop of 0.86% to 3,230,332 readers.

In comparison, IPC's market leader Nuts grew its circulation by 20% in the second half of 2004 with Zoo following close behind.

In April, Emap unveiled a redesign for Zoo to position it as more authoritative about entertainment and less reliant on girls -- a move that Emap said was to challenge the dominance of Nuts, but was also seen as a clear move to clich more red-top readers.

To combat the sector's surging popularity, Sun editor Rebekah Wade has is reported to have told the paper's commercial departments not to accept ads promoting Zoo or Nuts that target their core readers.

The fear is that on days Nuts and Zoo are published, buyers are getting into a habit of picking up one of the titles rather than a newspaper.

Nuts is currently outselling Zoo by 275,459 to 240,215 and has already been described as the third-largest estimated readership in the mens' lifestyle market, less than a year after its launch.

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