Jann Wenner, trying to update his increasingly stodgy trademark title, hired Needham away from the American version of FHM (For Him Magazine), a British “laddie” title that focuses, as the saying goes, on beer and babes. His new job has prompted plenty of hand-wringing, with cultural critics wondering whether the installation of a onetime laddie editor means the industry is reaching desperately for a formula that’s made Maxim, Stuff and FHM–with their combination of bodacious bodies, cheeky humor and snappy graphics–three of the fastest-growing magazines of the last half decade.
People are right to be worried, but not because the scuttling of Rolling Stone’s once proud National Affairs column says something about American society. The concern is–or should be–that the laddie market is saturated.
“When Maxim arrived, it was sort of like there was a desert, and then someone discovered an oasis,” says Samir Husni, a magazine expert who teaches at the University of Mississippi. “But the minute Rolling Stone starts losing its content, the minute it forgets its mission, it doesn’t matter how they package it. And judging from the first few issues that Ed has been in charge of, I’m a little afraid.” (One cover line from this week’s issue: the new girl next door and her astonishing sexual requirements.)
American publishers aren’t listening much to voices like Husni’s. Instead, they’re looking to imitate the category’s vertiginous success in the midst of an industry wide slump: Maxim, which launched in America in 1997, has a monthly circulation of about 2.6 million, almost double that of Esquire (721,000) and GQ (775,000) combined.
Now, even those established brands are trying to get a piece of the action. Old-guard stalwart Playboy has been conducting a search for a new editorial director and is reaching out to current laddie editors. Esquire’s and GQ’s front-of-the-book sections lately read like a middlebrow version of Maxim’s slapstick “charticles” and gags. Button-down Time Inc. is exploring launching a laddie book of its own. But the laddie category already has titles that aren’t gaining traction. (Ever heard of Stun? How about Razor?) Even Maxim’s numbers are finally flattening out.
And though you might not think so looking at your local newsstand, there are men who don’t automatically plunk down $5 every time they see Pamela Anderson in a G-string. Some industry analysts think it’s time to create a new prototype, say, a magazine for the 28- to 49-year-old man that doesn’t include advice like “never order a drink whose name includes a part of the anatomy normally covered by underwear” (Esquire) along with its more substantive reportage. “Everybody’s looking to tap into the latest trend,” says Hugh Hefner, Playboy’s founder. A half century ago, Playboy was the new big thing. It’s time to figure out what’s going to come next.
