A Day in the Life of a… Men’s Magazine Staff Writer

Posted on February 18, 2008 in Uncategorized

What does an average day as a staff writer on a men’s magazine involve?

I work for Maxim, a monthly men’s magazine. Most people imagine it’s a right doss; a job where each day is spent looking at women’s bits, driving the latest go-kart childishly across the office, then spending the rest of the afternoon getting smashed in the pub. I’ll be honest; girl-ogling, kart-riding and drinking beers have made up a small part of my time at Maxim. But believe me, my day is a lot different.

I edit the front section of the magazine –­ the ‘Inbox’ – which means that every issue I’m responsible for filling the first 25 pages or so with new, fun and interesting material that your average man will enjoy. My day involves trawling the papers and news sites for topical stuff we could profile, booking interviews, getting the latest gadgets in for us to try out in the office, meeting PRs and agents, commissioning articles, writing copy and occasionally lobbing a satsuma at the fat bloke with the silly beard.

What do you like best about your job? Working on a magazine must have some great benefits and perks.

It’s fun. I get to interview people I love and do activities that I would never have done otherwise (posing naked at a life drawing class and shooting water melons with machine guns are two that stand out – one was a lot more fun than the other). I get to travel and meet new people, watch the latest films for free, go to parties with free booze and flick peanuts at Big Brother stars, and generally just skip around London like a gleeful teen.

That all sounds too good to be true. What’s the down side?

Unsociable hours (working weekends, etc.), meeting demanding deadlines, dealing with awkward clients and having the pressure of having to come up with original stuff. Who am I kidding though? Overall, it’s a fantastic job.

What about the pay?

Magazine pay is fairly poor, unless you’re the Editor. The reason is that there are lots of people who would gladly snap up your job at the click of a finger, which means that publishing houses can afford to pay competitive wages. Though they vary, an editorial assistant role can start on as little as 14K – not great if you have to afford London rent, but often necessary for getting on the editorial ladder.

The perks – getting stuff for free, being taken out for lunch, etc. – do subsidise things slightly, but in the first throngs of magazine journalism, you do sometimes have to be frugal.

Once you’re in there is huge scope for moving around and getting promoted. Though your wage will never hit the dizzy heights of lawyers and bankers, you can earn enough to enjoy a comfortable life in London, and ultimately, in terms of life enjoyment, it beats sitting behind a high-powered desk in Canary Wharf, wanting to stab yourself in the face with a biro.

You must have been party to some pretty crazy stuff in your time at Maxim. What’s your favourite work anecdote?

Life in men’s magazines is often peppered with funny incidents, though they mostly involve someone falling over or being hit in the face with a flying satsuma. While working at Nuts magazine, I was invited downstairs to meet a representative from Monkey Shoulder Whisky. Like the excitable monkey-loving gimp I am, I ran down there and within seconds, a real live monkey called Kate was placed on my shoulder for a photo. As I was smiling for the camera, the loveable Kate urinated down my back. This would have been disturbing – especially as I didn’t have a change of shirt for that night – but for the fact that when the guy from Loaded magazine turned up, the monkey promptly shat on him. Brilliant.

You were involved right from the inception of Nuts – what was that like? Did you or your colleagues have any idea how popular the weeklies would become and what effect they would have on men’s monthly magazines?

When Nuts was launched there was a real buzz. We were creating something new that was exciting, fun and yet no one knew how the readers would react. Luckily for us, they loved it, which meant we then had the budget to get the biggest names, do the best things and generally have a laugh doing it. I’d get instant respect off almost every young man I met just for working there, and to hear that over 300,000 men were buying our mag every week was fantastic.

The monthlies expected a knocking but the weeklies smashed them for six. They had to revise their publishing plans in a big way. Four years on and things have changed slightly. While Nuts still sells loads of copies, the men’s magazine sector continues to drop sadly. The monthlies were hit by the weeklies in a big way, and with the rise of internet usage, they have been affected even further. Every magazine is now trying different things to entice readers, and in a terrific battle, it’ll be interesting to see who manages to survive.

What do you think is the most important factor in a successful men’s magazine, and what can you do to keep reader’s coming back for more? Surely with the rise in accessibility of the internet, men can view similar content to what you’re offering for free?

Ultimately, when it comes to young men, sex sells. Men want to see women, without clothes, and presumably a woman that has a look in her eye that suggests they would show you a good night if you met them in your local Yates’. But things are changing. With female pictures and footage more readily available on the internet, looking at a woman’s space hopper-sized breasts isn’t so important. It might initially entice a man to buy a magazine but they want substance once they’ve looked inside.

Now, it’s humour and advice that men seek. They may not admit it, but research suggests that these are the things that’ll keep a reader coming back. Top glamour model Lucy Pinder has been on the cover of Nuts, Zoo, Maxim and Loaded. Put these four covers next to each other and they won’t look too different. But it is the other stuff that will get a reader showing particular allegiance. If you can make a man laugh, you’re almost there. If you can improve a man’s life, then you’re even closer. If you get the right balance of humour, advice and a decent cover, then you’ve cracked it. It’s harder than you might think…but a challenge that is always fun and very rewarding too.

Interview with Mark Pickering, Staff Writer for Maxim magazine.