Ralph Magazine Ralph TV Men's Magazines Media Man Australia

Ralph Magazine

Ralph is a monthly Australian magazine published by ACP Publishing, a division of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited. It was first published in August 1997.

Ralph is known as a men's mag, in the vein of other publications such as Maxim and Loaded.

Similar to its rivals FHM and Zoo Weekly, it publishes photos of scantily-clad models and female celebrities, without revealing their genitals or breasts. This allows for the magazine to be sold in the lifestyle sections of newsagencies, and in other retailers such as department stores and supermarkets.

It describes itself this way:

"Whether it is adventure, sport, fashion, travel, music, boys toys, beautiful women or life's essential how tos, Ralph provides an environment that is purely Australian ... Ralph readers compare it to being like a conversation with one of their mates."

Ralph features photo shoots of Australian celebrities as well as international stars. Often the international photos are brought in from magazines such as Maxim. The magazine is often cross-promoted on other ACP and PBL properties, such as promotional parties held in conjunction with Cosmopolitan, and as a sponsor of home viewer competitions during the Fox Network's rugby league coverage.

It contains the same kinds of articles published in similar titles, and runs its own poll to find the "world's sexiest woman". The results are published in an attachment to the regular magazine each year. Unlike FHM, it features 200 women instead of FHM's 100, but Ralph's polling only takes in Australia and New Zealand (where a separate edition is produced), whereas FHM's poll is worldwide.

Circulation

Ralph and FHM have been locked in a battle to be the number one men's magazine in Australia. As of March 2006, Ralph circulated 108,000 copies slightly behind FHM's 111,000 (Source: AdViews)

Ralph TV

Ralph TV is a weekly television series based on Ralph magazine which airs on the Nine Network. It is hosted by Craig "Lowie" Lowe and features a trio known as "the girls of Ralph TV", newcomers Brooke Sheehan, Candice Manning and Angela Tsun.

The show airs footage of the various features and pictorals from the current monthly Ralph magazine.

The premiere episode aired on 7 June 2007 and each episode is repeated on Fox8. The series is produced by Endemol Southern Star (Credit: Wikipedia).

Websites

ACP Magazines

Ralph

Ralph TV

Girls, have what it takes to be in RALPH? You can e-mail your pics to girls@acp.com.au, or post them to RALPH's Photo Editor at GPO Box 189, Sydney, NSW 2001. Please include contact details and a basic bio with your pics. Pictures cannot be returned.

Articles

Raunchy men's mag set for TV, by Paul McIntyre- 7th September 2006
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)

PUBLISHING & Broadcasting Ltd is a step closer to spinning off Ralph magazine into a raunchy TV show on Channel Nine.

Nine briefed media buyers and advertisers in recent weeks to gain backing for the show.

Australian Consolidated Press, the PBL subsidiary that publishes the magazine, would not comment on the progress of Ralph TV but a late night series is to be launched early next year.

"It needs to be cheeky and irreverent but not rude," said a TV executive. "It suits itself to a late night."

The Ralph TV project comes as listed digital media player Destra Corp paid $12.2 million this week to acquire the branded content and media sales firm Brand New Media.

BNM was started in 2000 by Channel Nine's departing Melbourne managing director, Paul Waldren, and Perry Smith, and sells airtime for pay TV channels including CNBC, Fashion TV and the Movie Network. It is also the sales arm for online sites such as TVNZ.co.nz, StarTV.com and ESPNStarSports.com.

The firm's branded content ventures include a deal brokered by Mr Waldren for a new tradesman show, Jack of All Trades, which has the backing of King Gee, Mitre 10 and Selleys. It will premiere on Nine next month.

Mr Waldren left BNM in 2002 and relinquished his BNM shareholding to return to Nine. He leaves the TV network this month and is understood to be considering plans to create another venture which is likely to compete with BNM.

There was conjecture this week that another branded content company, Full Circle Entertainment, was about to be acquired by production group Southern Star, although Full Circle's Brian Gallagher denied the deal. "There's nothing happening," he said.

Destra's chief executive, Domenic Carosa, said BNM's acquisition fitted the company's broader strategy of creating content for online communities - Generations X and Y in particular - and generating revenues from advertisers.

"We're seeing a significant rise in the whole notion of ad-funded content as people start moving to personal video recorders and time shifting their program viewing," he said. "Many have been cutting out ads and we see having a sponsor embedded in programs will start making a lot more sense."

Mr Carosa said the group was looking at an "MP3-style" TV music show for unsigned and independent artists.

BNM's Mr Smith said Destra's backing would bring bigger resources to help develop online content and advertising. He cited Jack of All Trades as an example of how future projects would be developed, starting with a series of events, moving to TV and online, and then back to retail.

"The key for our measurement is not TV ratings but return on investment," he said. "How much of this stuff sells at Mitre 10? Before this deal was done, King Gee wasn't stocked in Mitre 10 stores. King Gee is now in 600 Mitre 10 outlets and it has a partnership with a retailer going into content."

Profiles

News

17th Feb 2008 - Candice Falzon to appear in Ralph