Development Hell targets 'disillusioned' men
Ciar Byrne The Guardian

A new men's glossy, produced by the brains behind some of the top entertainment titles in the UK, is on a mission to lure back disillusioned male readers without resorting to using pictures of "girls in their pants".

The forthcoming title, known as Project Satisfaction, will launch early next year.

It is the first magazine to emerge from Development Hell, the independent publishing company founded by David Hepworth, who, as Emap's editorial director, was behind the launches of Just Seventeen, More, Empire and Mojo.

Mr Hepworth, together with his business partner Jerry Perkins and fellow former Emap high flyer Mark Ellen, promises "a magazine for people who think there's nothing to read".

The magic formula Development Hell hopes will attract readers includes music, books, movies, digital and wireless technology but "not girls in their pants" and "not celebs".

"It's for people who listen to loud dance music in their cars and Radio 4 at home, who read Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad but can still laugh at The Simpsons," explained Hepworth.

Ellen is a former editor of Smash Hits and Q and, as editor-in-chief of Emap Metro, oversaw 14 music, film and men's titles.

His departure from the magazine giant, where he was latterly in charge of special projects and training in the consumer division, was announced in an email to staff last month.

Every now and then, some visionary photographers come along with a concept that is so original and so revolutionary that your immediate reaction is: "How come nobody thought of it before?"
Jean Baptiste Mondino, for example, had a great idea: Eva Herzigova half-naked.
Oh, it was done before? So how about Eva half-naked and tied up? That's so refreshing. It's been, like, maybe even an entire month since a model has been photographed in this fashion. (special thx Jim from My Fascination for those great scans from the last issue of CitizenK).
Now, Eva is probably the most photographed woman on earth right now, and it's no small achievement for a model who's been here for ever. Readers from the US might be unaware of the astonishing exposure of Eva here in the recent months. She's really everywhere. Her ads for Louis Vuitton are really hot (especially the one of men's watches). Vogue Paris runned a story in their July-August issue about Eva being the hot girl of the moment, crediting Mario Testino for it (in a magazine edited by Carine Roitfed who, incidently, was Testino's business partner for years). So in her last issue she, too, had an Eva editorial (but with clothes this time), since she must follows her own prophecy from the summer.
But why are off-mainstream magazines, like Amaan and CitizenK and Numero etc, publishing an Eva ed every issue as well? Because they feel advertisers will be reassured by her presence in their mags.
Eva recently changed agencies again, and US insiders are critical of her carreer moves. so far, hers have being much smarter than theirs.