Arena (magazine)

For the Australian political and cultural magazine, see Arena Magazine (Australia). For the defunct American magazine, see The Arena (magazine).

Arena
December 2007 edition of Arena with David Beckham on the cover
CategoriesGeneral male audience
Circulation29,374 (2009)[1]
Founded1986
Final issueApril 2009
CompanyBauer
CountryUnited Kingdom (Origin)
Based inLondon, England, UK
LanguageEnglish
WebsiteOfficial website

Arena was a British monthly men's magazine. The magazine was created in 1986[2] by Nick Logan, who had founded The Face in 1980, to focus on trends in fashion and entertainment. British graphic designer Neville Brody, who had designed The Face, designed Arena's launch appearance.

The headquarters of Arena was in London.[3] The magazine was part of Bauer Media[4] and featured articles on food, films, fitness, sex, music, electronics, and books. It was pitched at a similarly upscale audience to GQ, attempting to offer a more adult read than lad mags like Maxim and FHM, and gearing itself specifically towards the "black collar worker".

Arena launched the careers of British media professionals such as Dylan Jones, the editor of GQ UK who had served as Arena's editor in the late 1980s.

In July 2006, facing competition from the internet, the editorial team behind Arena launched a team blog which features regular posts from its contributors. In spite of this, magazine circulation continued to fall and in 2007, Giles Hattersley, chief interviewer at The Sunday Times was brought in as Editor. Hattersley oversaw a revamp of the publication and in November 2007, the magazine relaunched with a new design and new palate of content, featuring David Beckham on its cover. Hattersley returned to The Sunday Times in March 2008 and was replaced in the interim by deputy editor Mat Smith. Smith left in August 2008 to take over as features director at Esquire UK.

In April 2009, Arena ceased publication.[4] As of April 2009, international editions of Arena outside the UK continued to be published. These editions included Ukraine, Turkey, Korea and Thailand. Arena Singapore, the first English language edition outside the UK, was launched on 27 October 2006 by the publishing division of Mediacorp. Two and a half years later, Mediacorp announced on 30 April 2009 that it was closing the Singapore edition of Arena.[5]

  1. ^ Press Gazette / Arena magazine to close after 22 years / 3 March 2009 Archived 16 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Di Hand; Steve Middleditch (2014). Design for Media: A Handbook for Students and Professionals in Journalism, PR, and Advertising. Routledge. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-317-86402-8.
  3. ^ The Europa World Year: Kazakhstan - Zimbabwe. Taylor & Francis Group. 2004. p. 4378. ISBN 978-1-85743-255-8.
  4. ^ a b Brook, Stephen (3 March 2009). "Men's monthly magazine Arena to cease printing after 22 years". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  5. ^ "MediaCorp launches Style: Men, ARENA to be closed". mediacorp.sg (Press release). Mediacorp. 30 April 2009. Archived from the original on 16 December 2010.