Mens Magazines

Men's market plummets 14.4%Stephen Brook, press correspondentThursday February 15, 2007MediaGuardian.co.uk

Loaded: recorded a 29.9% circulation drop, year on year.
The men's magazine market has crashed, with even the once-buoyant weekly lads' magazine's suffering, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations figures for July to December.
The sector sold 14.4% fewer magazines year on year, selling a combined average of 1,978,166 copies each issue. To the six months to the end of December 2005 it was selling 2,310,423.
Emap's upmarket men's magazine Arena had the equal worst fall - 29.9% year on year - selling 34,556 copies. Its editor Will Drew lost his job yesterday and was given a special projects assignment by the company.
The market-leading FHM, also owned by Emap, was down a hefty 25.9% year on year to sell an average 371,263 copies each month. The poor circulation coincided with the removal of editor Ross Brown earlier this month, after he had spent 10 years at the magazine.
Anthony Noguera, currently the editor-in-chief of Arena and Zoo, is now also editor-in-chief of FHM.
Emap's Zoo, the weekly lads' magazine, was the fourth biggest selling men's magazine, down 21.5% year on year to 204,564.
"Emap continues to dominate the men's lifestyle magazine market with the biggest and best portfolio on offer. FHM, Zoo and Arena are all successful multiplatform international brands, and primed for further growth given their unique understanding of their respective consumers and advertisers," said Rob Munro-Hall, managing director of FHM, Zoo and Arena.
The news was also very bad for Dennis Publishing's men's magazine Maxim. It sold 131,497 copies, down 29.3% year on year and down 10% on the first six months of 2006.
Zoo's great rival, Nuts, the men's weekly from IPC, managed to minimise its losses, down 3.8% year on year to sell 295,002 copies each week. It now outsells Zoo by more than 90,000 copies each week.
But the news was terrible for Nuts's IPC stablemate Loaded, which led the way for the sector when it launched in the early 1990s. It was down 29.9% year on year to 162,554 copies, a fall of 12.3% on the first half of 2006.
The country's biggest selling fitness magazine, Men's Health, published as a joint venture between National Magazines and US publisher Rodale, was one of the strongest performers. Circulation rose 2.2% on the year, up to 238,568. It was the magazine's 10th consecutive ABC rise.
The biggest rise in the sector was Haymarket's gadget magazine, Stuff. It sold an average of 100,265 copies over the period, a rise of 10.5% on the year and 8.2% on the first six months of 2006.
Stuff editor-in-chief Tom Dunmore said: "Breaking through the 100,000 circulation mark for the first time is a huge landmark for Stuff, particularly at a time when the men's magazine market is in decline. Our formula is simple: gadgets, classy girls and a wry smile - and our success is further proof that 21st-century men want inspirational magazines with a specialist twist, rather than monolithic lads' mags."
The circulation of Conde Nast's GQ magazine was steady - it rose by 1% year on year, to 127,505.
Today also marked the debut ABCe for Dennis Publishing's Monkey, the first weekly digital men's magazine.
The average number of Monkey's weekly editions opened in January was 209,612, a result that pleased its publisher but is not comparable to printed magazines. Monkey is emailed to subscribers for free each Wednesday, mixing sports, video virals, girls, motors and technology. It includes video adverts and footage embedded in its pages.
"This is a very exciting time for Monkey magazine. The title's phenomenal ABCe success demonstrates just how compelling and innovative Monkey has been in attracting new readers," said Kerin O'Connor, Monkey's executive director.

overall i think that how mens magazines have gone more down in the market as most of the things that are being posted into magazines are becoming more reptititive. or people may be moving more into the internet and reading up storiees on the net rather than going out buying magazines.