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of the Maxim clones
Meet the second--and lesser--wave of imitators
By David Moore
In the world of men’s magazines, where imitation is the sincerest form of entrepreneurship, it was inevitable that the flagrant success of Dennis Publishing’s Maxim would quickly attract imitators.
At first, it was only a handful.
Details poached Maxim editor Mark Golin and embraced the beer-and-babes format. FHM, the U.K.’s leading lads title, rolled out a U.S. edition. Spin founder Bob Guccione Jr. bridged the gap between lad mags and more traditional men’s titles with Gear, while Dennis gave Maxim a kid brother in Stuff.
Now the second wave is upon us.
Call it “Attack of the Maxim Clones.”
Unlike first-generation lad magazines, these new titles don’t hail from major publishing houses. Several are the work of first-time publishers and editors. Two of them are aimed mainly at African-American readers, and a third title intended for the same market is on hiatus.
While the better-known beer-and-babes titles continue to strike many readers as formulaic and crass, even their critics concede that they are skillfully executed.
In contrast, it’s hard to see the Maxim Clones as anything other than cheap, ill-differentiated cash-ins serving up a reheated hash of locker-room jokes, “wacky” statistics and publicity-starved starlets.
Like a clutch of newly-hatched sea turtles, most of them will perish before they learn how to swim, but one or two may survive, so you might as well learn their names: Razor, Stun, Controversy, Swung, King, Smooth.
Which, if any, will make it?
Time alone will tell.
Till then, editors of the established lad magazines will probably continue to be dismissive of their fledgling would-be competitors.
"They’re still something of a novelty to us," says Maxim editor in chief Keith Blanchard. "They’re smaller than magazines like Esquire, which is already below our radar."
“They’re obviously derivative of what we’re doing and in some ways trying to tweak it a little bit, but they’re not going for a mass audience,” agrees Rob Hill, executive editor of FHM.
Given how fast Maxim, Stuff and FHM have attained the 1 million circulation mark, it’s tempting to think that it’s the formula itself, not the execution, that matters.
"Hot women, funny cover lines, some weird captions--it sounds easy," says Blanchard.
But the absence of original ideas and professionalism is painfully apparent in the editorial product, notes Greg Gutfeld, editor in chief of Stuff.
"They’re really primitive and obvious knockoffs," says Gutfeld. "Stun is trying desperately to imitate the success of Stuff and Maxim. Even Stun’s logo tries to mimic Stuff’s."
The sheer number of new lad-style magazines makes it hard to tell them apart, or even to care which is which, says Gear editor Bob Guccione Jr.
"My take on the whole new wave, which would include FHM, is that they are newcomers to a vastly monotone area of the market. They all begin to feel like a cup of tea made with a well-used teabag," says Guccione.
"The only direction to expand is towards GQ, Esquire and Gear, which cover the field in a far more journalistic and pan-cultural way."
Without an angle of its own to distinguish it, a new magazine can’t survive long, he says.
"Everyone is guaranteed a curiosity factor when they begin, but you have to convince advertisers and readers that you’re serving them uniquely."
On that note, what follows is a brief guide to the universe of lad-inspired titles, with an eye towards what sets each apart from its brethren in the world of contemporary cheesecake books.
Razor, whose tagline is "More than just a way of life," had clout enough to secure Oscar winner Halle Berry for the June 2002 cover.
But lest you think its standards for what constitutes a celebrity are too exacting, here’s a boast from the advertising section of Razor’s web site: "RAZOR Magazine has already established a dedicated following and through that dedication, the writing services of such luminaries as Howie Mandel, Ted Nugent and others."
Hidden among the actress profiles in the June issue was a decidedly un-lads-like piece on the crashing and burning of Talk magazine.
Razor says it has a circulation of 210,000.
Stun, a magazine for "men who want more," attempts to stake out the territory to the even less sophisticated side of its competitors.
"Our different sensibility is that we’re a working men’s magazine," says editor in chief Bruce Schoengood.
"We’ve got a little less gadgets and gizmos. We’re more of a cross between Maxim and Entertainment Weekly and Mad magazine," says Schoengood.
Stun sometimes seems to take the cleavage-bearing pictorials and potty humor of Maxim as an excuse for outright misogyny.
Recent articles include "Best in Breast: Celebs with Ogle-Worthy Chests," and "Shut Up & Put Out!: Hot Girls Who Talk Too Much."
An article on the topic of women in sports, called "Babes with Balls," includes the insight, "Watching them strut their stuff is almost like getting free porn (without the sex)."
Schoengood says he isn’t worried about overcrowding in the men’s market.
"People will buy four or five magazines in this category," he says.
Perhaps. But will advertisers?
Only 16 of the 150 pages in Stun’s June 2002 issue consist of ads.
Schoengood says that Stun has a circulation that is approaching 500,000.
Swung began as an online magazine in October of 1999 before launching into print this past February.
Debuting with porn star Jenna Jameson on the cover, Swung is as much a nod to Playboy as Maxim, with lengthier articles than those in Maxim or FHM.
The enterprising startup got an interview with the notoriously press-shy Johnny Depp through a freelance writer who was friends with the movie star.
Jason Miller, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Swung, says, "We’re different from Maxim—that’s who we’re all trying to catch--because we’re trying to get down deeper into who these people really are. And we’re geared more towards hip-hop and urban culture, which Maxim doesn’t do that often."
Miller says Swung has a circulation of 50,000 and has plans to move from a bi-monthly to a monthly publishing schedule.
Controversy, which sports the slogan "because life without it is boring," launched in January with a rate base of 100,000. The founders are Derrick Frazier and Quentin Coryatt, two former NFL players.
The magazine occupies the crossroads where Maxim meets ESPN, with the sports angle complemented by articles about divining "what women want."
Two more men’s titles, King and Smooth, are primarily targeted at African-American readers.
King, "the illest men’s magazine," is heading into its third issue.
"King is the urban version of Maxim," says Dennis Page, who publishes King as well as the hip-hop music title XXL and the NBA title Slam.
"The difference is the lifestyle: Maxim has fart jokes and beer jokes, while we’re dealing more with urban lifestyle, hip-hop music, urban fashion. We’re a much more flavorful magazine."
About Smooth, Page says, "Smooth is well done, and I don’t want to knock them. But we’re bigger and have a better financed publisher."
Page says that King has a base rate circulation of 150,000 and plans to move from quarterly to bimonthly next year.
Smooth promises to give "the right moves for today’s man."
Smooth’s cover photos of barely-clad women certainly fits the lad formula, but Sean Cummings, the editorial director, says that Smooth includes substance in its coverage of issues of interest to black men.
"A lot of people think black men don’t read, but it’s just because they haven’t had a reason to go to the newsstand," says Cummings.
He points out a feature on African-American soldiers, many of whom fought without being free, as an example of the political features that add heft to Smooth.
"That’s how we’re different from King: Their cover says hip-hop and women, and that’s not us at all," says Cummings.
Though Cummings admits, "Of course we have the sexy women to keep things interesting."
Cummings says that the year-old Smooth has a circulation of 200,000.
House of Roses, another men’s title aimed at African-American readers, says it has temporarily shuttered its doors due to an advertising slowdown. The magazine first came out in 1998 and was re-launched in December of 2001.
May 30, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-David Moore is a staff writer for Media Life.
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