LONDON — Elgar Johnson, the British editor behind the indie publishing company Circle08 Media that prints CircleZeroEight, wants men to buy magazines again.

His new venture, Sir! Magazine lands on newsstands on May 1 and it’s not a tome with a waif male model wearing the latest runway looks cycling against the backdrop of an orange-hued sky.

Sir!’s cover stars are mainly men, including actor Ray Winstone, Manchester rapper Aitch, British director Nick Love and three comedians.

“What sets us apart is that we’re going directly after men who have been left out. I grew up in Peterborough [east of England] and men don’t ever talk about anything to do with fashion, music or style because they don’t know where to find it,” said Johnson in a joint interview with Jimmy McIntosh, who is the editor of the magazine.

The magazine’s tag line is “For men who want to know.”

Johnson and McIntosh list music, politics, film, comedy and technology as the things that men want to read about. They’re also subjects that are featured on the magazine’s covers with headlines such as “Modern Masculinity — why are young men turning right?” and “Going out’s out — the death of the provincial nightclub.”

Other features in the magazine are as varied as a man’s experience on Ozempic, the treatment for type 2 diabetes that’s being used for weight loss; sexting in 2025 and a piece about the farmer’s protests in the U.K.

The magazine is taking a busy, rough-and-ready approach to everything — it’s already tapped former GQ editor Dylan Jones, Glamour U.K.’s new editor Kemi Alemoru, and Hattie Collins, who previously worked with Johnson at i-D Magazine as contributors.

As the circulation for mainstream magazines decline, niche indie magazines are filling the gap.

Sir! Magazine is going down the independent route when it comes to stockists by partnering with local newsagents. 

Johnson and McIntosh have put an emphasis on making sure newsagents in the north of England stock the title — another reason is because cover star Aitch is from Manchester, where he has a solid following.

Sir! Magazine wants to go back to basics in offering men advice and ideas without the snobbery of high fashion magazines that are dictated by advertisers.

“When you go to a football match, there are men wearing Stone Island jackets worth 1,500 pounds and they’re not fake. They’ve just saved up and bought them — and that’s the guy that we’re going after because they spend. I’ve said it before, but everyone in London gets things for free,” said Johnson.