MEDIA & MARKETING:Magazine circulation figures indicate that men have more than one thing on their minds, writes SIOBHAN O'CONNELL.
MEN’S MAGAZINES used to be a niche category on shop shelves but in the 1990s they enjoyed a surge in popularity in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere. The reason was a new type of man’s read, described by publisher Felix Dennis as a mix of “beer, babes, gadgets and fashion”.
This heady brew proved to be a huge commercial success, especially Dennis's Maximwhich, unusually for a UK title, conquered the American market too. Now, however, magazines in the men's lifestyle category are dropping like ninepins.
A few weeks ago, Maximceased publishing in the UK. Another recent casualty in the men's category is Arena, which ceased publication in March after 22 years in business.
Both titles were victims of changing fashions but also competition from free titles. One of them was Sport, a free weekly distributed by hand around London every Friday. Sporthad an average circulation of 310,000 copies last year but now it too has suspended publication.
As Sport's managing director Greg Miall told the Guardian: "No one launches a company with a business plan that includes the worst recession for 80 years. Ours certainly did not and, faced with financial Armageddon, we simply cannot sustain our current operations."
The largest circulation men's lifestyle magazine in Britain is another free weekly, Shortlist, which launched in September 2007. Shortlistis composed primarily of lists of useful and useless information for blokes on their commute. With a circulation of 500,000 copies per issue, the magazine is handed out every Thursday by distributors at train stations, bus terminals and car parks.
Both Shortlistand Sportdisrupted the successful business model of the paid-for glossy men's titles. Six years ago, Maximhad a circulation of 240,000 but in the months before the title was extinguished in Britain, sales had collapsed to 45,000.
Other big sellers aimed at guys are also struggling. The circulation of FHMhas more than halved to its current figure of 270,000. Racier titles such as Nuts, Zooand Loadedhave also all experienced large circulation drops. Nutsis down to 234,000 from a peak of 300,000, Zoo's circulation has declined to 145,000 from 260,000, while Loaded, the original of the species, treads water with an average sale of 90,000 compared with 260,000 in its heyday.
So what’s going on? Have young men suddenly become more serious? Are they spending all their time working to stay employed and spending any spare time watching CNBC?
Media observers believe the reason so many young men have stopped buying magazines is more prosaic. Maximand its imitators all majored with photos of girls in various stages of undress, and now that sort of content is freely available on the web.
According to Paul Thomas, a senior executive with media buyer Mindshare in London: "In five years time, I doubt if Nutsor Zoo, or any of those other lads weekly titles will still be in business. The lads culture was a moment in time that has passed. Maximwent very down-market while Arenadidn't know what it was and kept changing its approach. If the magazine doesn't know what it is, the audience will just drift away."
Maxim was a global success and though publication in the UK has ceased, the title still rakes in millions for Dennis through licensing deals.
But it’s telling that one of the world’s most successful magazine publishers is now concentrating his efforts online.
Dennis has already pioneered the utterly tasteless but very successful online magazine Monkey, which is e-mailed to around one million people every week. Dennis is still bullish about the future of print, but he also expects his company to make 40 per cent of its revenues from online this year.
The few men's lifestyle magazines which have maintained their circulation and even reported gains are the more cerebral titles like Men's Healthand GQ, which more or less shunned the rush to the lowest common denominator.
Says Paul Thomas: "The future for men's lifestyle magazines is upmarket. Both GQand Men's Healthhave managed to retain their core readers by sticking to their guns. They haven't tried to chase the big circulation numbers by diluting their editorial ethos."
In any case, the magazine circulation figures indicate that men have more than one thing on their minds. For instance the Economisthas a weekly circulation of 196,000 copies in Britain and Ireland and a further 230,000 in the rest of Europe. And Private Eyehas a larger sale than Stuffand Loadedcombined.
