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.