James Brown (editor)

James Brown (born 26 September 1965 in Leeds) is a British journalist. He is best known for creating the modern men's magazine market with the launch of his title Loaded in 1994, a magazine that was said to define a generation. Educated at Lawnswood School in Lawnswood, 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 Attack on Bzag James Brown was hired as freelance features writer for Sounds. 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). 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, Hotdog and Bizarre. The company was floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in May 2000. It bought Viz in May 2001 from John Brown Publishing, and also acquired Fortean Times. 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 in August 2002 IFG was sold to Dennis Publishing 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

• James Brown at the Internet Movie Database
• Sabotage Times, James Brown's online magazine

News items

• "Loaded founder eyes 'spectacular voyeurism' ", The Daily Telegraph, (24 October 2007)
• Biography - 24 August, 2007 Guardian article
• 17 July, 2007 GrowthBusiness article
• 18 August, 2006 Independent article
• http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/celebrity/entertainment-reviews/100507-website-sabotage-times-.aspx