Maxim and FHM bear brunt of mens titles downturn

The men’s lifestyle magazine sector has seen a series of significant drops in today’s ABCs results. Bauer Media-owned FHM has reported a 10% drop year-on-year but Dennis Publishing-owned Maxim has lost more than half its circulation over the year.

Maxim’s circulation has plummeted by 59.6% year-on-year and 44.5% on the period to just 43,542 copies. It is down from just over 107,500 for the same period last year.

FHM remains the sector’s biggest title with a circulation of 280,392, although it is also down 11% from the six months to December 2007. Loaded, owned by IPC, also a saw loss on the year of 20.8% and 17.1% period-on-period bringing its circulation to 95,371.

The sector has grown by 19.9% year on year to 2,388,062 magazines, a 18.8% increase on the six months to the end of June 2008 but there have been limited gains with only NatMag’s Men’s Health, Condé Nast’s GQ and Men’s Fitness, owned by Dennis Publishing, reporting growth on the period and the year. Men’s Health has increased by 2% on the period and 2.6% year-on-year to 245,212, and GQ increasing by 0.4% period-on-period and 1.7% n the year to 130,008. Men’s Fitness made slight gains of 0.2% on the period and 0.4% on the year.

The men’s weeklies, Bauer-owned Zoo and IPC’s Nuts both reporting falls on the period and the year. Zoo saw the biggest fall at 13.6% year-on-year dropping to 161,331, a 9.9% drop on the period, while Nuts remained a head of its rival at 250,061, a 9.8% fall on the year and 7.4% period-on-period.

Meanwhile, Bauer’s Arena increased by 22.4% over the period to 30,896 copies but was static on the year and NatMags’ Esquire grew by 8.6% year-on-year to 58,136 but is down 2.8% on the same period last year.