Turn the Page: Another Lad Mag Closes

ByABC News
December 13, 2006, 3:24 PM

Dec. 13, 2006 — -- Maybe flipping past all the articles in between the photos of scantily clad models and C-list actresses was just too much work.

Or perhaps it was an unbearable tease to look at pictures of barely clothed women when hard-core sex is only a click way.

Either way, young men continue to abandon lad magazines like Maxim and Stuff, both of which have seen circulations dive over the last two years.

The latest casualty: FHM magazine, which announced that it was closing Wednesday morning. After the upcoming March issue, the magazine will exist only as an online venture. Four or five of the magazine's 47 staffers will stay on to help manage FHMonline.com and the rest will be let go, according to publicists working with the magazine.

"We're still in shock," said a staffer. "They're meeting with each of us now to talk about the future."

FHM's publisher, Emap Consumer Media, will continue to put out the magazine's flagship British edition and 30 international editions, from the United Kingdom to Indonesia. But due to changing tastes in the American marketplace and advertising dollars moving online, the company decided it was time to pull the plug on the U.S. edition. FHM's ad pages are down almost 20 percent and the magazine's ad dollars are down more than 15 percent compared to last year.

With the launch of Maxim in 1997, lad mags exploded in popularity by combining sophomoric humor, skin, and slick buying guides. Imitators soon followed, including Stuff, FHM, Razor and Giant. Some even targeted niche audiences, with Smooth and King catering to black audiences and Barracuda cultivating retro stylings.

By late 2005, they'd worn out their welcome in frat houses and boardrooms across the nation, with both Maxim and Stuff posting double-digit losses in ad pages compared to 2004. In September of that year, Razor folded. And this fall, Stuff retooled its content to target a slightly older and wealthier audience.

"At one time, it was new and different to see a celebrity posing in these revealing photos," said Toni Fitzgerald, the managing editor of Media Life magazine. "Now you can go to Google and get a million images like that."