Lecture: Charles Coxe
Charles Coxe, co-executive editor of MAXIM magazine, told NYU journalism students that freelance writing and tireless networking are ways to break into the magazine industry. Photo by No'u Revilla.
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Briefcase in hand, suit well-pressed, Charles Coxe seemed like the no-nonsense, corporate type, when he stepped up to the podium for his October 12, 2005 lecture in NYU's Department of Journalism. But something in the way he grinned hinted at the man behind the button-down exterior, a man who has spent eight years laughing his ass off at the irreverent, lad-culture magazine MAXIM.
He started working for MAXIM in 1997, Coxe told an audience of students and faculty. A college friend introduced him to the editor-in-chief who happened to need an assistant. For the first few days, Coxe was limited to getting coffee, making copies, doing dry cleaning, and making sure newsstand clerks shelved MAXIM with the men's magazines. He took his first step up the corporate ladder on the fourth day, when he volunteered to re-write a hockey article that was little more than an introductory paragraph and a list.
"Most of the editors that we have on staff right now were hired because they had some connection to another editor; either they knew an editor or wrote for an editor now, and that's how their name got thrown in the hat," said Coxe.
Before his promotion to co-executive editor, a title he shares with James Heidenry, Coxe was the executive editor of the magazine's "MAXIM Goes to the Movies" section; the editorial director of MAXIM Online (after its re-launch in 2000); and a member of the team that launched MAXIM's spin-off publication, Stuff, a magazine devoted to technology and other boy toys.
"One thing that can be drawn from my experience is [the importance of] getting your foot in the door," said Coxe. "Don't be afraid to be a little bit annoying. So many people we have on staff, we first were introduced to because they were relentless about pitching us ideas. Eventually, [we] found one we liked. They started working as freelancers and, naturally, when we had an editorial opening they were the first people considered, because they knew the job and the tone of the magazine." Freelance writers produce 60-70 percent of the content of every issue of MAXIM, he noted.
According to Coxe, who has freelanced for ESPN, Cosmopolitan, Stuff, and National Geographic, the successful freelancer maintains a disciplined writing schedule, constantly pitches ideas to editors, and delivers on deadline. Not that he's role model: "I tend to write everything the day it's due," he confessed. "That's how I was in college; that's how I am now. My main love is writing, not editing. But I can't be a writer full-time, I just can't. I couldn't support my family because I don't have the self-discipline to be a writer."
"Magazines are inherently disposable; they are entertainment,” says Coxe. “At the end of the day, MAXIM isn’t the biggest thing in someone's life.”
According to Coxe, GQ Editor-in-Chief Art Cooper of 1999 quipped that MAXIM would only appeal to 14-year-olds and "men who not only move their lips but drool when they read." Ironically, the wiseass upstart soon blew the doors off GQ not to mention Men's Journal, Men's Health, and Esquire. MAXIM's peak circulation rate was 2.8 million in 2002.
"But our attitude was always that magazines are inherently disposable; they are entertainment. And while we hope to leave MAXIM in the back of people's minds, leave some little tidbits, what we like to call ‘social ammunition for guys’ – little bits of trivia, jokes that they can use [on] their friends at the bar – at the end of the day, it's not the biggest thing in someone's life; it's something we hope they enjoyed, but they're going to move on, watch a movie, play video games, read a book, another magazine. So it was really important that we not take ourselves too seriously," said Coxe.
MAXIM's editorial voice is characterized by a "self-deprecating humor," said Coxe. "We'll make fun of other people but we try to make fun of ourselves at the same time. The main thing is we want people to laugh."
Surprisingly, MAXIM's witty, older brother tone caught on with women as well as beer-guzzling frat brats. According to Coxe, the magazine's female readership has stayed at 25 percent for the past two years. Women who read MAXIM fall into two categories: those who read it for humor they don't find in women's magazines and those who read it for a better understanding of the male mentality. "And, of course, there are women like my mom's boss," said Coxe. "The 75-year-old psychiatrist who just loves the women on the cover."
Unlike his mom's psychiatrist, Coxe concedes an indifference to the MAXIM models. "I used to watch TV shows and movies and say, 'Oh wow, she's hot,' or often times my wife will say, 'Oh, don't you think she's hot?' I don't know anymore. I've been working at MAXIM so long, my ability to make those distinctions is gone."