Since the magazine’s launch in 1996, cover girls have regularly featured on Stuff’s cover and inside pages. However, with Stuff evolving from a print magazine to a multi-platform media brand and interest in tech on the rise, its readership is changing.
The new look - unveiled to subscribers for the first time today - is the culmination of digital audience profiling, focus groups and cover trials on three editions, says Haymarket. The focus groups asked Stuff readers and people unfamiliar with the brand to critique some different cover treatments.
The focus groups were then followed by unique tests across Stuff’s April, May and June 2014 issues which involved devoting 20% of their print run to a “non-girl” cover in four UK regions with the usual Stuff cover running in all other territories.
The cover trials demonstrated that consumers were in favour of the “non-girl” covers with sales 10% up in April, 7% up in May and 6% up in June, compared to sales of the magazine with the regular covers.
Editor-in-Chief, Will Findlater says: “Stuff was launched in 1996 at the peak of the lad mag era. Nearly twenty years on - and with tech now an indispensable part of everyday life - our readership has changed. The covers used to help our position on the newsstand but our research tells us this is no longer the case.
We want the cover to reflect what Stuff is about: the best new technology in the world. Our new look will make it easier for us to bring our award-winning coverage of the cleverest, most forward-thinking new gadgets and software to readers united by their passion for technology - and nothing else.”
Publishing Director, Rachael Prasher says: “At Haymarket, we believe in always putting our audiences first. While the decision to drop the cover girls from Stuff is based on what our audience have told us through focus groups and cover trials, there is no question that it feels like the right decision to make. At the industry level, we see this as a big step forward for Men’s Lifestyle magazines.”
