James Brown (editor)
Encyclopedia
James Brown is a British journalist. He is best known for creating the modern men's magazine market with the launch of his title Loaded
Loaded (magazine)
Loaded, first published in 1994, is a British magazine for men that is considered to be the "original lads' mag". Its motto is "For men who should know better".-History:...

in 1994, a magazine that was said to define a generation. Educated at Lawnswood School
Lawnswood School
Lawnswood School is a state comprehensive school in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has about 1500 male and female pupils, aged 11–18. It is a specialist Maths and Computing College. The sixth form was deemed extremely good in the most recent Ofsted inspection in 2009, however the...

 in Lawnswood
Lawnswood
Lawnswood is a small suburb in the north west of the city of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. As such it is north north east of the West Yorkshire Urban Area.- Location :It is bordered by West Park, Adel, Ireland Wood and Holt Park...

, North Leeds, Brown is now one of the most sought after opinion formers and thinkers on men's lifestyles, new business development and market creation, and the media and entertainment worlds. He is CEO of Black Ops, a media consultancy company.

Career

In 1986 following work on his fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...

 Attack on Bzag James Brown was hired as freelance features writer for Sounds
Sounds (magazine)
Sounds was a long-term British music paper, published weekly from 10 October 1970 – 6 April 1991. It was produced by Spotlight Publications , which was set up by Jack Hutton and Peter Wilkinson, who left "Melody Maker" to start their own company...

. From here he went on to join NME as Live Editor in 1987, subsequently becoming Features Editor. At 21 years old he was the youngest senior editor the paper had ever had. During his time selecting the covers for the music paper sales rose from 70,000 per week to 125,000.

In 1991 Brown became manager of Fabulous (band)
Fabulous (band)
Fabulous were a British pop punk band formed in 1991 by NME journalist Simon Spence and NME photographer Martyn Goodacre, initially under the name Baggy.- History :...

. On leaving NME he wrote features for Sunday Times magazine and then launched Loaded as founding editor. The title was a revolutionary launch, creating a new market for young men, and became the fastest ever payback against investment for parent company IPC magazines. Producing its first £1 of profit against a target of three years. Loaded is seen as being the pioneer of modern "lad mag" formats and both Brown and the magazine repeatedly won numerous industry awards including the coveted BSME Editor's Editor of The Year Awards in only his second year as an Editor. Thetitle was expected to sell just 30,000 copies per month but became market leader with-in a year of launch. Brown oversaw the sales rise to just under 400,000 copies.

In 1997 Brown left Loaded for the British edition of GQ, where he revitalised the title which had been in dangerous decline. He launched the Man of the Year Awards and hired a young chef from the River Cafe to write the food column, this was pre-Naked Chef Jamie Oliver. Brown significantly increased the sales of the title and resigned as editor of GQ in February 1999, founding the company IFG (I Feel Good) in 1999, and published a stable of magazines that included Viz
Viz
Viz. and the adverb videlicet are used as synonyms for "namely", "that is to say", and "as follows".-Etymology:...

, Hotdog
Hotdog Magazine
Hotdog Magazine was a film magazine first published in the United Kingdom in 2000. Its publisher, Highbury Entertainment, claimed an average circulation of 17,132 between July and December 2003....

 and Bizarre
Bizarre (magazine)
Bizarre is a British alternative magazine published from 1997 to the present. It is currently published by Dennis Publishing; it is a sister publication to the Fortean Times.-Content:...

. The company was floated on the Alternative Investment Market
Alternative Investment Market
AIM is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange, allowing smaller companies to float shares with a more flexible regulatory system than is applicable to the main market....

 (AIM) in May 2000. It bought Viz in May 2001 from John Brown Publishing
John Brown Publishing
John Brown, previously called John Brown Publishing, is one of the world’s largest customer communication agencies. While originally formed as a magazine company it now offers a broad range of services under a single umbrella - these include divisions for catalogues, digital, customer magazines,...

, and also acquired Fortean Times
Fortean Times
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing and then I Feel Good Publishing , it is now published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. As of December 2010, its circulation was approximately 18,000...

. He created Leeds Leeds Leeds an official club magazine for Leeds United Football Club which sells 20,000 copies per issue.

Brown created the magazine Jack
Jack Magazine
Jack was an English language lad mag based in the United Kingdom.- History :Jack magazine was initially published by I Feel Good in 2002 in A5 format. With the tag "an orgy of war, animals, fashion, genius and cool", it featured glamorous photo shoots of women, reviews of clothing, gadgets etc and...

in August 2002 IFG was sold to Dennis Publishing
Dennis Publishing
Dennis Publishing Ltd. is an independent publisher. It was founded in 1974.As of April 2010 the company publishes 31 magazine or online titles, predominately in the UK....

 for £8m in 2003.

Since selling IFG, Brown has worked across the media. In Television he appeared with Gok Wan in Miss Naked Beauty and a participant in Channel 4's Extreme Detox. he also helped create Flipside and co-produced over 50 episodes before the show was bought for Channel 4 and then Paramount. He presented and co-produced 'I Predict A Riot' for Bravo, a ten part investigation into the history of civil disorder. He has also appeared regularly as a pundit on the BBC's art shows Newsnight Review and The Culture Show. In 2010 he oversaw the relaunch of the Sky Sports Magazine - the biggest sports magazine in the world. He has also worked on the development and launch of the Independent's Media Weekly supplement, the Mail on Sunday's LIVE Night & Day supplement, and Jamie magazine.

In May 2010, Brown launched a new website called SabotageTimes to focus on music, football,fashion, travel, TV and film.

External links


News items

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