Men's magazines: an A to Z

Top shelf title Mayfair took over King. This cover is from 1971

Mayfair Back to top

Paul Raymond, London. 1966-
Top-shelf men's magazine similar to Playboy and Penthouse, though Mayfair was not seen as being as bold as the latter.

First issue of Condé Nast's men's magazine Men in Vogue showing actor Edward Fox wearing a nutria fur coat. Photo by Norman Parkinson

Men in Vogue [closed] Back to top

Condé Nast. November 1965-1970?
Associate editors were Robert Harling and Beatrix Miller of this fashion and lifestyle men's magazine. The cover of the first issue showed actor Edward Fox in a fur coat photographed by Norman Parkinson. It had 126 pages plus cover. Size: 12.25" x 9.125" (31cm x 23cm). It lasted at least until the winter of 1969.

Condé Nast drew back from launching Men in Vogue as an autonomous publication again in 1985, when Cosmopolitan, Elle and Harpers & Queen all had dedicated sections for men. It was not until 2005 that Men's Vogue appeared.

Contents of the first issue of Men in Vogue in 1965:

• 'A reference for Mellors': author Anthony Powell considered what happened to Lady Chatterley and her lover
• extract from jazz man George Melly's biography, Owning Up
• 'The Englishman: the best dressed man in the world?' Featured James Astor, Cecil Beaton, Brinsley Black, Gay Kindersley, Nigel Lawson (BBC economics adviser and FT columnist), Jocelyn Stevens (editor-in-chief of Queen), Sir Fitzroy Maclean (a Scot), Christopher Gibbs, Lord Gormanston, Julian Ormsby-Gore
• 'The heroes of St Moritz': Tony Nash and Robin Dixon had won the world bobsleigh championship. Photographs by Terence Donovan
• 'The most Bailey girls in the world.' David Bailey on women he finds 'different, mysterious and interesting': Catherine Deneuve (his wife); Jean Shrimpton; Monica Vitti; Francoise Dorleac; Jeanne Moreau; Sue Murray
• 'Men and their cars': racing driver Jim Clark in a Lotus Elan; photographer Terence Donovan in a Silver Cloud II; Mark Boxer, editorial director of London Life, in a Rover 2000; Kevin Powell, Granada traines (Mini Moke); Peter Sheridan (Invicta 1930); Lord Snowdon (Mini and Aston Martin DB5);
• 'But you can get a girl with a gun' by Antonia Fraser
• special report on winter clothes (cover feature). The models were all actors: Corin Redgrave, Edward Fox and Gilles Milinaire
• 'Ski and after'
• Paris
• 'Narcissus revisited' grooming by Alan Brien
• 'What is travelling?': adventure, sport, business and travelling's sake
• Christopher Gibbs' shopping guide to London
• fashion award for 1965: worst-dressed man award for prime minister Harold Wilson

Condé Nast profile

First issue of Men Only, the men's magazine that declared: 'We don't want women readers.'

August 1960 cover of Men Only after the takeover of Lilliput. Still a pocket format

In 1965 with a larger format and more pin-ups; and below the first Men Only under Paul Raymond in 1971

Men Only [closed] Back to top

Pearson/George Newnes/Paul Raymond, December 1935-
Pearson launched the pocket men's magazine Men Only (stapled, 115x165mm) in 1935. Its editorial strategy was clearly stated:

'We don't want women readers. We won't have women readers...' It sought 'bright articles on current male topics'.

From the first issue Men Only carried colour photos of 'art' nudes. It later carried colour plates of illustrated models, by artists such as Dickens and Vargas, on a page labelled 'Let’s Join the Ladies.' Pearson was taken over by Newnes, and Men Only faded from the mid-1950s, though it took over both London Opinion and Lilliput. Newnes, in turn, became part of International Publishing Corporation in the mid-1960s.

Men Only was bought by Leonard Matthews (who had been nicknamed 'Napoleon of the Comics' as director of Fleetway Publications). It was published by City Magazines Ltd in Fleet Street. It adopted a larger format and more pin-ups but was still mainly in black and white with a colour pin-up centre spread.

In 1971, Matthews sold Men Only to Paul Raymond, who ran night-clubs in London's Soho district. He relaunched Men Only as the start of a 'top-shelf' publishing empire. By 1972, it was reported as selling 400,000 copies a month.

Men's Fitness sought to take sales from Men's Health

Men's Fitness Back to top

Mollin/Dennis, July 1996-
The short-lived publishing group Mollin had a strategy of licensing magazines from the US. It sought a slice of the Men's Health market with Men's Fitness in July 1996. This had a then-fashionable monochrome cover with a flourescent orange ink for the masthead. The Men's Fitness tagline reflected the lads magazine attitude of the time: ‘Get fit or feel s**t.’ Mollin folded and Men's Fitness was taken over by Dennis, though it has remained a long way behind the market leader.
Mollin profile
Dennis profile

Men's Health was a US import from Rodale

Men's Health Back to top

Rodale/NatMag Rodale, February 1995-
Version of US title with David Hale as launch editor. In May 2004, The National Magazine Company and Rodale International set up a partnership in the UK, ‘NatMag Rodale Ltd’. The joint venture publishes Men’s Health and Runner’s World under long-term licence from Rodale International. Sales have steadily risen to put the title in the top three men's magazines in the UK.
Rodale profile

Men's Vogue - arrived 40 years after the previous attempt to launch an upmarket men's magazine, Men in Vogue

Men's Vogue Back to top

Condé Nast, autumn 2005-
Quarterly aimed at men aged 34 and up earning $100,000 a year or more. Half of the 400,000 printed in the US for the first issue were sent to men fitting the target profile, with the remainder going to newsagents. Copies were also distributed in the UK. The magazine had to differentiate itself from stablemate GQ , though that has to some extent been dragged into Maxim /FHM territory.
Condé Nast profile
Men in Vogue

Mondo was a men's magazine aimed at older Loaded readers

Mondo [closed] Back to top

Cabal, November 2000-May 2001
Front publisher Cabal followed IPC in tackling the 'post-Loaded generation' with Mondo, though like IPC's Later, it folded in 2001. The editor was Push and Mondo carried the strapline: 'Having a good time all the time'. Cabal, founded by former IPC editorial director Sally O'Sullivan, featured in a BBC2 TV series in autumn 1999.
Cabal profile

Monkey is a web-only digital magazine for younger men

Monkey To top

Dennis, 1 November 2006-
Lads magazine published as a free digital-only weekly on a website and for mobile phones by the Maxim and Week publisher. Monkey is a digital magazine that aims to rival men's print weeklies Nuts and Zoo and played on the Maxim link - 'In association with Maxim' it read along the bottom of the 'cover'. The digital magazine for 16 to 30-year-olds, will be sent by email each Wednesday. Dennis claimed to have signed up 250,000 people to receive the magazine before the launch. Monkey released a first ABCe figure of 209,612 copies a week. Dennis said the average reader after four months of publication was 28 and spent 45 minutes a week reading the title, with two–thirds of the readers not reading any other men’s magazine.

Dennis has a history of innovation with 1995 CD-Rom magazine Blender, websites and mobile access, and this digital magazine takes things a step further. The lad's weekly has 54 pages, which use Ceros technology from Applecart, a UK e-publishing consultancy, to give the appearance of being turned over (also used by Emap for Digital Living). In 2005, in a Guardian interview (15 August), Felix Dennis, founder of the eponymous company that publishes Maxim and The Week, had ruled out launching a printed men's weekly in the US. 'It is interesting that no one has rushed to launch one in America and anyone who does will be utterly crucified because there isn't anywhere to sell it. There's not a supermarket in America that would touch [Emap and IPC weeklies] Zoo or Nuts.'
Monkey website
Monkey on MySpace
Dennis profile
Digital magazines
Guardian interview with Felix Dennis