Maxim editor ousted after failed ‘luxury magazine’ relaunch
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.