[9] In development for a year, Loaded was predicted to be a flop, but IPC considered it a low-risk investment because the advertising department of its Music & Sport division already existed and the promotional budget was minimal.
[15] Brown wrote in the May 1994 launch issue: "Loaded is a new magazine dedicated to life, liberty and the pursuit of sex, drink, football and less serious matters.
[16] The original editorial team also included Martin Deeson, Jon Wilde, Rowan Chernin, Pete Stanton and Derek Harbinson.
[7] At the end of 1999, with circulation in the market sector now beginning to decline, Loaded dropped what was described by Meg Carter in The Independent as its "babe-only cover policy".
[24] James Brown discussed the title at length and the impact it had on '90s culture in the documentary Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop.
[1] The publication was edited by Martin Daubney from August 2003 to October 2010 with the sales supported by DVD girl themed covermounts and the price being reduced temporarily to £2.50.
[31] In February 2010, Loaded received an ABC circulation figure that was down "just 2% over the period," compared with what Media Week called "eye-popping falls" for its competitors.
[32] In 2007, Loaded was voted 49th in a poll organised by industry website goodmagazine.com's for the Top 51 Magazines of All Time, for the "Smartest, Prettiest, Coolest, Funniest, Most Influential, Most Necessary, Most Important, Most Essential, etc.
Tinney commissioned self-proclaimed militant feminist Julie Burchill to write a regular 'agony aunt' column and Lia Nicholls as Deputy Editor, making her the first woman with an editorial role at the magazine.
[45] The following year, in July, Loaded dropped the photographs of partially clothed women after the lads' mag sector as a whole had faced opposition to their publication and display on covers from other supermarket chains, advertisers and feminist campaigners.
[46] When a reporter for the London Evening Standard asked if the policy on female nudity had changed, a spokesman for Simian Publishing commented: "Yes — we're going to be far more discerning and sophisticated from now on,"[47] The magazine's closure was announced in late March 2015,[8] the last issue being for April of that year.
[48][15] The Loaded style was copied many times, most obviously in a relaunch of FHM, then owned by Emap, Maxim and more niche titles like Eat Soup and Men's Health.
In the opinion of Holly Baxter, Loaded "tried to incorporate interviews and features that would make the publication seem a little less seedy" than Nuts, its more down market rival which closed in 2014.
The Guardian's Mark Sweney wrote at the time of the online relaunch in November 2015 that Loaded had been given: "a new lease of life as a digital publication dropping the scantily-clad girls of its heyday in favour of classier content" intending to become a quality men's magazine.
[2] Continuing the last version of Loaded in the final eight print issues, editor Aaron Tinney was quoted as saying, "It is quality men's magazine content online.
"[2] In May 2024, Danni Levy took over as new editor of the online magazine, and launched a 30th birthday limited edition print version featuring Elizabeth Hurley on the cover.