Tom Wilkinson views Loaded's barely noticeable revamp as a bid by IPC to boost its ad sales. (Loaded: An Experts View).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

If I hadn't been asked to comment on Loaded's revamp, I probably wouldn't have even noticed the changes. But if you look really closely, you'll see this month's issue has had a facelift.

The original lads' mag has tucked away some of the boring bits that nobody ever read and, they claim, enhanced the stuff you really like -- women and sex. Why? Well, IPC must surely be concerned with a decline in sales that produced a 13 per cent drop at the last round of ABCs. Quite how you can recapture the "glory days" by merely adding a new typeface and redesigning parts of the editorial layout, I'm not too sure.

The changes are superficial. Indeed Loaded's editor, Keith Kendrick, admits that they are barely recognisable. All the old favourites remain pretty much in the same place. The Rogue section remains the opener, Pornalikes retains its position at the front of the mag, and dancers from the Torture Garden are still "Getting Away With It" in the review section at the back. It's just they've all got newly designed titles now.

Such minor cosmetic alterations do give the impression that IPC is not too sure why Loaded lost sales over the past year, but surely a modernised look and apparently more naked women and sex can't do any harm? However, the amount of space devoted to these appears to be the same as any other issue from the past couple of years. A page here, a page there.

This seems like an inexpensive tinkering around that will, more ...