Men's magazines: an A to Z

Nine Back to top

Nine Magazine Ltd; Published under licence by PML, London. Oct/Nov 2002-?
Editor C. Cushnie was 'committed to producing an innovative, contentious and provocative publication'. He went on: 'we are about wine. women and song ... Every issue we will bring you some of the hottest black women Britain has to offer...' Nine carried plenty of flesh but not topless.

IPC set out to create a new weekly sector for men's magazines with Nuts

Nuts Back to top

IPC Media, January 2004-
IPC gave away a million free copies of Nuts at branches of WH Smith and sent out copies with media trade magazines to launch its men's weekly and establish a new sector. Launch costs for Nuts were estimated at £8m. The next week's issue (23 January) was sold for 60p, half the aimed-for regular price. The weeklies Nuts and Zoo have since taken away younger readers from the men's monthlies and also hit tabloid papers such as the Sun.
IPC profile
Breakdown of Nuts first issue

F1 racing driver Niki Lauda on the cover of Options for Men in April 1985, with Michael Caine in December, below

OM/Options for Men [closed] Top

Carlton, December 1984-December 1988
Reed subsidiary Carlton put out Options for Men as a supplement to women’s monthly Options in December 1984. Options for Men covered fashion, motoring, sport and entertainment. The company had hopes of a standalone quarterly in 1985, though this did not come about. However, OM went out as a supplement three times in 1985 and 1986 and was quarterly in 1987, which led the company again to talk of a separate launch in 1989, but it did not see the light of day. Sally O'Sullivan was editor.
IPC profile

First issue of underground magazine Oz, above. In April 2006, a copy sold on eBay for £360

The School Kids Issue triggered an obscenity trail

Two covers for issue 37: Angry Oz and A World of Young Love
The last issue (issue 48) carried a photograph of the staff, naked. Felix Dennis is on the top right

Oz Back to top

January 1967-November 1973
Oz was an underground magazine set up in Australia originally by editor Richard Neville and artist Martin Sharp. They came to 'swinging London' and brought the concept with them. Although not strictly a men's magazine, it is included here as the training ground for Maxim founder Felix Dennis. The magazine broke all the publishing and design rules and was highly creative and influential. The cover ran around the front and back of the School Kids Issue, for example, and issue 37 (September 1971) could be read from either end as A World of Young Love (portraying sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll) or Angry Oz. In 1971, Oz was the subject of an infamous obscenity trail that held Briton in thrall. Three men - Richard Neville Felix Dennis (later founder of Maxim publishing empire) and Jim Anderson were prosecuted for conspiracy under the UK's Obscene Publications Act 1959 over 'sexually perverted cartoons and articles' in the School Kids Issue (issue 28, May 1970). Sentences of up to 15 months sparked protests from John Lennon and many others. The convictions were quashed on appeal. Oz sales rose to 80,000 but the magazine closed in 1973 (issue 48). Official papers released in 1999 showed that the authorities held an inquiry into the accusation that police were prosecuting hippie publications such as Oz and the Little Red Schoolbook while Soho pornographers paid bribes to avoid jail. The resulting anti-corruption drive saw the jailing of the senior officer responsible for the Oz prosecution; 400 other officers were imprisoned or left the force. See Tony Palmer's book Trials of Oz for details.
Gerry Carlin articles on Oz
Weed's Oz links and covers
Whole issues have been scanned at Oz Trading and are available on a CD

Parade in 1961 and 1973 below

Parade in March 1965 had a pin-up colour centre spread of actresses, such as Raquel Welch, but there were no topless pictures

Parade in 1972 had become far more raunchy men's magazine with a naked colour centrefold and several other topless pictures

Parade [closed] Back to top

City Magazines/Williams Publishing, 1958-1977?
Blighty the pocket war-time humorous / pin-up weekly men's magazine, was relaunched several times with the Parade name:

• Blighty Parade (6 December 1958 - 7 November 1959. City Magazines, 45 St Pancras Way, London NW1; printed by Eric Bemrose, Long Lane, Liverpool 9). Larger format, colour cover and centre-spread colour pin-up (used both men and women). Marketed itself as featuring pin-ups, cartoons and stories. Published on Mondays.
• Parade and Blighty (14 November 1959 - 26 December 1959). New name, same publisher and format.
• Parade (3 December 1960 - 1976/1977?). By March 1965, City Magazines had moved to 167-170 Fleet St, London. Later at Aldwych House, 81 Aldwych, London WC2B 4HL. Marketed itself as 'The man's magazine women love to read.'
• By 1972, publisher was Williams Publishing in Leicester with editorial offices at 249-289 Cricklewood Broadway, London NW2 6NX. Still printed by Eric Bemrose. It became a monthly.
• In 1974, Parade was relaunched by Soho-based Top Sellers Ltd as a Penthouse-style title with Roger Cook as editor. It used full-frontal shots and nipples were shown on the covers. The numbering started from volume 1. The line 'Not for sale to persons under 18 years of age' was printed under the masthead.
• By 1978 it was under the control of a different company, General Book Distribution, but still at the same address (Warner House, 135 Wardour Street, London W1V 4QA).

The magazine title was sold in 1983 and no longer appears to be published.

The short-lived Parade and Blighty (November 1959) in the evolution of Blighty into Parade

Parade and Blighty [closed] Top

see Parade

Penthouse made a fortune for Richard Desmond

Penthouse Back to top

Penthouse/Northern & Shell/Portland, March 1965-
Upmarket top-shelf mens magazine. Launched by Bob Guccione, a US photographer who had worked on Playboy. Penthouse was the first of the UK titles to adopt a Playboy format, carrying lifestyle and mainstream articles among the pin-ups. Seen as more aggressive than Playboy, in its April 1970 issue, Penthouse became the first of the more upmarket top-shelf magazines to show a woman's pubic hair. Almost all the others quickly followed suit.

Very successful internationally. Launched US version in 1979. Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell/Portland group - now publishers of OK! and the Express papers - made its money by taking on the Penthouse franchise in the UK before expanding into niches such as Asian Babes and Forty-Plus. An issue in 1984 was reported as selling 5.3 million copies. The group also launched a CD-Rom version and website.

In 1998, in the face of the threat from websites and lad's mags such as Maxim in the US, the magazine became more sexually explicit. The UK edition, now under US control, tried a less-explicit route using fashion photographers to produce an 'adult magazine for grown-ups'. Both strategies failed and in 2003 the company filed for bankruptcy and the title was put up for sale. It was bought by new investors and the title is still published by Penthouse Media Group. Total circulation is below 350,000.
Northern & Shell profile

Photoplay in 1968

Photoplay [closed] Back to top

Although not strictly a men's magazine, Photoplay relied for much of its appeal on pin-ups of film stars.

Nothing subtle about the title of this 1950s Pin-up magazine

Pin-up [closed] Back to top

Padiham, Lancaster. 1958?-
Pocket pin-up men's magazine.

Playboy : a copy of the first issue sold on eBay for $2,050 in September 2006


Playboy (1996 cover) added good writing to a pin-up formula to lead men's magazines into an international era, as far as the Ukraine, below

Playboy Back to top

Hugh Hefner, 1953-
Hugh Hefner's Playboy launched in 1953 in the US, selling for 50c. Marilyn Monroe was on the front cover and featured again, naked, inside. Playboy thrived in the US and around the world.

In its October 2005 issue, Loaded branded itself as ‘The Playboy UK issue’ and ran promotions for the launch of the Playboy UK website.