Abs & Sex Outsell Men's Olympia Winners & Contenders Covers

[Musclepapa John]

“Abs & Sex Sells” states Steve Blechman.
The May 2015 issue with Nabba Pro Bodybuilder Calum Moger and a retired bikini pro outsold all but one of the MD magazines in 2014 publisher claims & attributes it to abs and sex.
Some might interpret a Nabba pro Arnold look alike on the cover of MD in these days to mean something else. Lee Priest was likewise featured in the May issue.
Peter McGough bragged on magazine forum that it was his question that resulted in Arnolds diatribe after the Columbus event.
Inquiring minds want to know what is really going on?

blechman_bombshell.jpg

[Maniacal]

Your obsession with MD is pathetic.

[mackdaddy567]

Magazines are doomed. After reading some from the 1990's recently it is so apparent how they have lost all relevance!

[Musclepapa John]

I'm interested in muscle media and they are one of the leading ones. Its big news when the publisher produces a cover with a Nabba pro on it claiming last years version was the 2nd best of the year besting all the top IFBB guys and running spread on Lee Priest at the same time his chief writer McGough is stirring the pot leading Arnold to rant about judging calls. All a coincidence? I think not. Its a pattern of activity that started at the Arnold 3 Arnold Columbus ago when Arnold
stated the mag editors should do more to direct the sport followed by Blechman featuring Calum on the cover last year as an Arnold look alike. This year in running the controversial cover he did not mention Calum by name re the cover release until it was revealed he was a Nabba pro. BTW to claim Dianna on the cover was only due to "sex sells" is a slap in the face of all women who compete.

[Joe Pietaro]

I'm interested in muscle media and they are one of the leading ones. Its big news when the publisher produces a cover with a Nabba pro on it claiming last years version was the 2nd best of the year besting all the top IFBB guys and running spread on Lee Priest at the same time his chief writer McGough is stirring the pot leading Arnold to rant about judging calls. All a coincidence? I think not. Its a pattern of activity that started at the Arnold 3 Arnold Columbus ago when Arnold
stated the mag editors should do more to direct the sport followed by Blechman featuring Calum on the cover last year as an Arnold look alike. This year in running the controversial cover he did not mention Calum by name re the cover release until it was revealed he was a Nabba pro. BTW to claim Dianna on the cover was only due to "sex sells" is a slap in the face of all women who compete.

Like you, John, I, too, am in the muscle media and Brand X is my direct competition. Sure, my publication and entire company may be a much smaller one than Brand X, but we are both going in opposite directions - his product is getting smaller and less relevant (see how I snuck in that infamous word, Gregg?) while mine is growing larger by the day and taking the hardcore bodybuilding angle he has slowly been abandoning.

So like the old Pepsi Challenge, competition is fair game for criticism and that works both ways. He can send his flunkies on to the new forum on my newly redesigned website (hint, hint) and beat the shit out of me. I promise not to censor anything or ban them, as they have done to John and myself on their cotton candy forum.

A few points about this new cover of theirs, if I may:

*This is a shot from that same photo shoot from last year's "hit" cover with the same two models. You can draw your own conclusion from that.

*Calum is a supposed Arnold look-a-like who doesn't resemble The Austrian Oak at all IMO.

*Dianna is incredibly gorgeous and is very cover-worthy, but not on a bodybuilding magazine.

*Dianna is also Brand X's supplement company's spokeswoman, the female equivalent of "Mr. Intensity" himself.

*Probably overlooked due to so many other negative attributes about this cover, their famous tag line, "The World's Biggest Bodybuilding Magazine," is no longer present. I had a few laughs flipping through this future best-seller on the newsstand yesterday and it is under 200 pages, thus no longer worthy of that distinction.

*The cover lines are cliche and predictable drivel, used a thousand times over by Brand X on their three titles.

[strainandgain]

Do you just regurgitate everything about MD ?

[Joe Pietaro]

Do you just regurgitate everything about MD ?

I'm not sure if this is directed at me, but I'll gladly answer it.

When you're fired by a company after doing what everyone - including fellow employees - say what was a great job, it burns your ass a bit. In 47 years, this is only the second job in my life that I was fired from and the first one was Waldbaum's in 1983. So I took this one personal, especially since I have to continue to make my living in the same industry. (I rebounded in the supermarket world by landing a gig at Key Food, BTW.)

I obviously will not say who these people are, since they still work for Brand X. But most of them are long timers there and all of them are highly regarded by Professor X. So I don't want to fuck them up in any way, especially after they were nice enough to reach out to me - even now seven months later - to reinforce their opinion on what went down there with me.

This industry is a small one when it comes to working for media outlets and it seems that people 'make the rounds,' if you will. I had worked for FLEX before Brand X.

Getting fired from a steady paying job is never good timing, but this kicked me in the balls, as my daughter had just started college and I had purchased a new car two weeks prior and was taking on more payments for both.

I was able to land on my feet since I already owned my own company and put out a magazine and was also able to grab some good freelance jobs from outlets that realized I am a plus to their company and know what the fuck I am doing. When people hear that Professor X fired you, they realize the source and know his esoteric ways.

The last straw was the way he fired Valentino and when you fuck one of my buddies, it is like you're fucking me, too. Since that was already the case, game on as far as I'm concerned.

[strainandgain]

I'm not sure if this is directed at me, but I'll gladly answer it.

When you're fired by a company after doing what everyone - including fellow employees - say what was a great job, it burns your ass a bit. In 47 years, this is only the second job in my life that I was fired from and the first one was Waldbaum's in 1983. So I took this one personal, especially since I have to continue to make my living in the same industry. (I rebounded in the supermarket world by landing a gig at Key Food, BTW.)

I obviously will not say who these people are, since they still work for Brand X. But most of them are long timers there and all of them are highly regarded by Professor X. So I don't want to fuck them up in any way, especially after they were nice enough to reach out to me - even now seven months later - to reinforce their opinion on what went down there with me.

This industry is a small one when it comes to working for media outlets and it seems that people 'make the rounds,' if you will. I had worked for FLEX before Brand X.

Getting fired from a steady paying job is never good timing, but this kicked me in the balls, as my daughter had just started college and I had purchased a new car two weeks prior and was taking on more payments for both.

I was able to land on my feet since I already owned my own company and put out a magazine and was also able to grab some good freelance jobs from outlets that realized I am a plus to their company and know what the fuck I am doing. When people hear that Professor X fired you, they realize the source and know his esoteric ways.

The last straw was the way he fired Valentino and when you fuck one of my buddies, it is like you're fucking me, too. Since that was already the case, game on as far as I'm concerned.

No, this was directed towards Musclepapa John.

But thanks for the backstory.

[Musclepapa John]

Magazines are doomed. After reading some from the 1990's recently it is so apparent how they have lost all relevance!

And how do they build relevance when the publisher comes out and state Sex & Abs sell and was the mags second most popular issue as a result of a similar cover last year? So more Sex & Abs is good for "bodybuilding"? I'd really love this philosophy further explained by Peter McGough, et all. Is the sex or the abs part more important? How much sex on the cover makes the issue really fly off the news rack? Is an Australian NABBA pros abs really superior to that of an IFBB pros in making sales go through the roof? Ridiculous, but his herd of yes men and women will continue to go along and call him nuts behind his back while milking his bank account dry

[hifrommike65]

Is a cover the only basis on which a magazine purchaser makes a decision? Also, hasn't the fitness guy & hot chick combo been on bodybuilding mag covers since the mid-1980s? The only difference I see in this particular cover is the focus on her ass.

I just heard that the Phil Heath show this last weekend had a thousand competitors. It's a regional qualifier & not at all a major show. Prejudging went to 5:00 p.m. & the show went to 2:00 a.m. Why? Hoards of physique & bikini competitors. Classes fifty deep. The center of the industry is no longer bodybuilding. The bomb has dropped, & we're just now feeling the fallout.

[Musclepapa John]

Is a cover the only basis on which a magazine purchaser makes a decision? Also, hasn't the fitness guy & hot chick combo been on bodybuilding mag covers since the mid-1980s? The only difference I see in this particular cover is the focus on her ass.

I just heard that the Phil Heath show this last weekend had a thousand competitors. It's a regional qualifier & not at all a major show. Prejudging went to 5:00 p.m. & the show went to 2:00 a.m. Why? Hoards of physique & bikini competitors. Classes fifty deep. The center of the industry is no longer bodybuilding. The bomb has dropped, & we're just now feeling the fallout.

I agree the center of the industry is no longer bodybuilding per say although some will point to the Olympia contest as an example of the strength of bodybuilding itself. While there is obvious interest in the Olympia and the handful of big names that MD, Flex and whomever else is remaining rotate onto their covers these same mags have all but abandoned contest coverage except for those few top IFBB shows and big amateur shows with clout in Texas where their editor lives with her minions and in New York. NPC News has covered about a dozen NPC & IFBB contests to five combined for MD & Flex thus far in the season. Point being while the trend in terms of athletes is no longer bodybuilding the mags still aren't actually treating anything, but bodybuilding seriously. They replaced prep videos with amateurs with stories of old from Peter McGough. That's great stuff if you are over forty, but not worth a damn to the average 18-35yr old male looking to buy sups to be the next badass a the club or on stage (typical advertisers audience).
Plus, Blechmans comment about Dianna's role on the cover being "sex" relegated the entire bikini division along with women's worth to the magazine as being nothing more than sex NOT athletics. If the only value to the mag for a male is abs then we certainly don't need bodybuilding inside the cover as it could be replaced with physique. Its quite the mixed messaged to claim on one hand bodybuilding is key and we have the biggest and best voices covering it such as Peter McGough, Shawn & Bob, BUT it really doesn't matter as sex and abs are where its at. Yet, none of their yes-men over there are chiming in to contradict the big boss as they still collecting the checks

[Joe Pietaro]

Newsstand sales are not the end-all on how a company should decide to go in a certain direction with their product, especially in this digital age. The publisher receives mere pennies on the dollar for each copy sold and the distribution fees make it not worth the investment.

Playing the devil's advocate, let's say a potential reader who is interested in general fitness (and not bodybuilding) see this new Brand X issue with the Arnold non-look-a-like and a gorgeous blonde with an amazing ass. He or she may in fact pick it up and leaf through the pages, but the rest of the magazine - sans that one feature - really don't match up. So that person will probably put it back on the store shelf and grab Men's Health or Men's Fitness, especially because both will have a celebrity on the cover.

Even if that person did buy that issue, the fact that it outsold the bodybuilding covers show that those were one-and-done customers. They may have looked for the title the following month, but when they saw Wolf or Branch on the cover, they probably didn't even realize it was the same magazine. Such is life with what is called the 'impulse buyer' on the newsstand. You may get one or two out of them, but not steady - especially if you are delivering different messages with your cover choices.

The regular reader will probably have a subscription and not immediately cancel it because of a pretty boy/girl cover, but it will make that loyal fan question the direction of the magazine. If it becomes more than the exception rather than the rule, then you have alienated that person and they will jump ship.

The main agenda should be to add a steady website visitor and the non-bodybuilding cover will give that person a false impression of what is in store once they log on to the site. That is where the money lies and not in the print market.

If Professor X feels that the cotton candy cover is the way to go to make money, then he should go all in and completely transform his once-interesting platform completely into that. He's partly there already, with the purge of the personnel who put him on the map over a decade ago.

[hifrommike65]

I subscribe to all the wide-issue BB mags--Flex, M&F, Iron Man, MD, & Fitness Rx for Men. Yep, that's all there is in the mainstream arena now. The only two hardcore mags are Flex & MD. Everything else has transitioned to fitness & media stars. I will say, though, that a very recent trend in the AMI mags is '70s/'80s BB nostalgia. Frank Zane at his prime is on the cover of the current M&F, & Flex has started doing a heavy rotation of earlier big names in its mix, with some updates on where they are now. Monthly features on former Mr. Olympias are also a trend, as opposed to the up & comers. Iron Man is now a fitness mag, & obviously Fitness RX for Men is. That said, the MPD guys who went pro have gotten better built, & resemble actual bodybuilders now more than they did starting out.

I think everyone has realized by this point that the future of magazines is online. The question is how to transition them completely to the 'net while making sure subscribers continue to pay. They're used to getting things free. All my mags (I subscribe to quite a few) are talking up their websites every chance they get, & trying to get me onto them. I happen to like to read print at home, though. I'd a dinosaur, but not yet extinct. I expect that five years from now, most mags & newspapers that survive will be entirely online.

[Musclepapa John]

Even if that person did buy that issue, the fact that it outsold the bodybuilding covers show that those were one-and-done customers. They may have looked for the title the following month, but when they saw Wolf or Branch on the cover, they probably didn't even realize it was the same magazine. Such is life with what is called the 'impulse buyer' on the newsstand. You may get one or two out of them, but not steady - especially if you are delivering different messages with your cover choices.

Your analysis surely is correct and one I'm sure most all of Blechman's staff agrees with. How does Blechman even come up with the conclusion that: It was "sex and abs" that caused that issues sales to be the second highest of the year? He can't unless he has polling data and if someone like Sandwich on their forum was to make the same comment Blechman did the loyal hordes would beat him down as being insane and an idiot. If one ass gets increased sales how about two asses next time? Will that double sales? I don't actually believe Blechman even believes what he wrote. In my view he was sending a message with Ms Motocross and his NABBA pro that he can go a different direction the same as they have been doing following the pattern of Flex to put celebs etc on the cover with the added twist of being elitist in the vein of Arnolds recent commentaries and tossing in a feature on a NABBA show promoter to boot. The NPC & IFBB continue to be the best and as these mags continue to discount the coverage of the tens of thousands of amateurs by covering less shows and doing fewer and fewer amateur prep videos etc that pool of potential client base will continue to turn away from them looking elsewhere for the coverage of themselves, friends and family elsewhere. That band of self-ingratiating know-it-all experts and celebrities will increasingly be talking to themselves with their insular closed forum concept versus the wider and more inviting and accountable approach of social media. There is a price for being considered elitist. Let them eat cake sorts of elitism has never been well received by the mass market.

[lil mama]

I agree the center of the industry is no longer bodybuilding per say although some will point to the Olympia contest as an example of the strength of bodybuilding itself. While there is obvious interest in the Olympia and the handful of big names that MD, Flex and whomever else is remaining rotate onto their covers these same mags have all but abandoned contest coverage except for those few top IFBB shows and big amateur shows with clout in Texas where their editor lives with her minions and in New York. NPC News has covered about a dozen NPC & IFBB contests to five combined for MD & Flex thus far in the season. Point being while the trend in terms of athletes is no longer bodybuilding the mags still aren't actually treating anything, but bodybuilding seriously. They replaced prep videos with amateurs with stories of old from Peter McGough. That's great stuff if you are over forty, but not worth a damn to the average 18-35yr old male looking to buy sups to be the next badass a the club or on stage (typical advertisers audience).
Plus, Blechmans comment about Dianna's role on the cover being "sex" relegated the entire bikini division along with women's worth to the magazine as being nothing more than sex NOT athletics. If the only value to the mag for a male is abs then we certainly don't need bodybuilding inside the cover as it could be replaced with physique. Its quite the mixed messaged to claim on one hand bodybuilding is key and we have the biggest and best voices covering it such as Peter McGough, Shawn & Bob, BUT it really doesn't matter as sex and abs are where its at. Yet, none of their yes-men over there are chiming in to contradict the big boss as they still collecting the checks

perhaps he is steering it in that direction since physique & bikini is a big money maker in the npc. who knows maybe he feels that regular folks are interested more in beach bodies than mass monsters.

oh and as far as the yes men well what ya want from them? to disagree and get fired or keep making a living for how ever long they can until the titanic sink...just saying money pays dem bills