Revenue, ads increase at redesigned Maxim

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The red ink is still flowing at Maxim — although it posted healthy revenue and ad pages increases.

The toned-down laddie mag reported a pre-tax loss of $18 million in 2015, slightly less than the $21 million in red ink recorded the previous year, according to a regulatory filing by its parent company, Biglari Holdings.

The magazine, under the direction of owner Sardar Biglari, changed its focus in recent months to feature less T&A and more fashion spreads.

The change seems to be going over well with advertisers as ad pages surged 50 percent in 2015 to 368.2, according to Mediaradar.

In turn, revenue rose to $24.5 million in 2015 from $15.2 million in 2014, according to the filing.

Editor Kate Lanphear, recently let go after being wooed away from the New York Times by Biglari soon after he bought the title two years ago to reposition the magazine, seems to have hit on a successful formula.

It didn’t save her job, however.

Lanphear, before coming to Maxim, was the editor of the Times’ “T” magazine. Her redesign attracted more fashion advertisers to Maxim.

Paid subscriptions, however, plunged 17.8 percent to 1,466,000. But that was because the company deliberately curtailed the number of copies it was distributing each month.

Its rate base is now 1.78 million, down from 2.2 million. Single copy sales in the second half of 2015 dropped 2.2 percent — better than the industry-wide 7.2 percent drop-off on newsstands.

Biglari supervised the December issue following Lanphear’s October departure and last month took the unusual move of naming himself editor-in-chief.

He also sued two former employees for leaking what he claimed is false information to The Post regarding a photo shoot with December’s cover model Alexandra Ambrosio.

“We purchased a media business, Maxim — knowingly stepping into a maelstrom — with the expectation of incurring substantial short-term losses, the bulk of which we view as investments,” Biglari wrote in a Feb. 22 letter to shareholders.

He insisted his team has “vastly improved the quality of the Maxim brand, which has resulted in our appealing to a more affluent audience.”

In the two-year period since he bought the title from Cerberus, the magazine and its related properties have lost $39 million. Biglari has pledged Maxim would be profitable by late 2016.

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