Peter Akinti

Can a "Black Male Lifestyle magazine" be successful?

Peter Akinti

"Untold is not an angry black man's magazine. I don't wake up every morning angry," says Peter Akinti, editor of Untold, the "Black Male Lifestyle magazine". "What I want to do is make a difference. I want to show that blacks can be successful, stylish, adventurous, and unrestricted by the racism around us, says Akinti, an East Ender of Nigerian parents.

Ambition
Dissatisfaction with men's magazines led Akinti to put his law degree on hold and quit his civil service job to start Untold. He had a burning belief that he could put on the news stands a new magazine that was relevant to the lives of successful and aspiring black men. Akinti finally got support from Tony Elliott, publisher ofTime Out, after being turned down by the media publishing giants Emap and IPC.

Audience
Untold, with its 40,000 copies print run, is fighting for a niche in a highly competitive men's lifestyle magazine industry. And, Akinti aims to be a media power player. Untold gets wondrous praise from photographers and media designers, and enjoys a large white readership.

Blacks however have divided loyalties. Black male readers feel good about the positive, provocative and innovative way they are portrayed. Black women are less sure. One wrote Akinti protesting that parading Black women through the magazine's pages as icons of "sexuality or sexiness" was stereotypical, disrespectful to womanhood, and a cynical way to sell the magazine.

But Akinti dismisses his critics as being jealous of his success. "Also, a lot of 'respectable' people don't like our image of the new black man - with top-class jobs, and money to spend on fast cars, expensive bikes, and fabulous holidays," Akinti says. He thinks the 'hard work and thrift' teachings of the older generation are "tiresome, boring and outdated".

Occasionally, serious feature articles can be found in Untold amidst the lad-ish banter about "making out and making money". The launch of the African-owned AfriStar satellite was featured recently. London's mayoral candidates, Lord Jeffrey Archer and Ken Livingstone MP, have deplored racism and praised the city's multi-cultural community in the magazine.

Economics
But in the end Untold's contested image will have to give way to marketing realities. It will be economics that calls the tune. With the anniversary of the bi-monthly magazine fast approaching, Akinti ponders the future. "I am still looking for investors all the time, but we have enough money to ensure that we will be around for a little while," he said. "It will be champagne all around if we make it to our June/July summer issue," says Akinti.

Akinti will have to surmount some tough hurdles to stay in the game, however. People perceive Blacks as victims not as consumers, and this lack of understanding often influences advertisers' attitudes. Akinti recounts in a Press Gazette interview that when he approached a major brewery for advertising he was asked: "Do black men really drink beer?"

Publishing for niche markets is notoriously unpredictable and difficult to profile, and this presents its own problems. Targeting Black male readers 18-35 years old needs much more market research. Questions need to be asked and answered. What do Black men read and want to read? Is there a Black male aesthetic? Will Black men be enticed by Black fashion leaders and male role models - in sports, the arts, and music - into the shopping bazaars of Britain's high streets? Why aren't the other men's magazines good enough for Black men?

The Black and Pink Pound
Untold's success will depend on socio-economic factors as well. The spending power of the "young black male professional pound" is limited by the economics of discrimination. It is much weaker than the "pink pound" of Britain's prosperous gay white males, for example.

Strengthening Untold's advertising revenue base and marketing channels is another of Akinti's major problems. Untold's limited range of revenue - from high-status luxury purveyors, multimedia companies, and army and police recruiters - is not strong enough to sustain his pioneering efforts. In addition, he needs secure distribution, subscription and marketing networks in Europe and the United States where there are large affluent Black communities.

Admittedly, black men's life style magazines are a tiny segment of the publishing world, but Peter Akinti aims to be a mover and shaker within it. "What keeps me going, against all the odds," he says, "is seeing my magazine on the news-stand shelves. Right up there among Loaded, GQ, FHM and Arena, the front runners."