Kate Lanphear To Exit Maxim

Maxim Editor-in-Chief Kate Lanphear is stepping down after little more than a year.

The former style director for T magazine joined the lad mag in September of last year with the aim of reinventing it as a men's lifestyle magazine by finding a more empowering way of celebrating women. Under Lanphear's creative direction Maxim's traditional "Hot 100 List" was rechristened "The Hot List" with Taylor Swift landing the top spot.

Earlier this year, in keeping with Lanphear's new direction of tweaking Maxim's view of women, the magazine also launched a Swimwear line. It's September 2015 issue saw Idris Alba on its cover, marking the first ever man to grace its cover solo. The cover was met to much positive social media response with the magazine boasting 36 more advertisers and a 143% increase in fashion advertising pages compared to last year's September issue.

But all of the Lanphears efforts to transform the magazine into a sophisticated success seemed an uphill task. Though its advertising pages grew 63.8 percent in the January to September period over 2014 to 246.51 pages its readership had tanked over the last few months. The magazine drastically cut its rate base, to 900,000 from two million and just last week it was poised to unveil another redesign for the second time since Lanphears' appointment.

Speaking of Lanphears' parting Kevin Martinez, publisher, said, "Kate has played an integral role in evolving the Maxim brand, and we would not be where we are today without her valuable leadership. We wish her all the best." Robert Price, chief operating officer at Maxim, said, "We appreciate all the hard work Kate has put into the magazine and how far it has evolved during her time here, This fall, we are taking the next step in our evolution and will continue to upgrade the brand across fashion and luxury."

In a statement Lanphear said, "Working at Maxim has truly been a rewarding experience. I'm proud of everything all of us at Maxim have accomplished and how far the magazine has come in the past year."