Maxim closes UK print edition

Dennis Publishing title to go online only from next month, putting 12 jobs at risk

Maxim, one of the titles synonymous with the mid-1990s lads' mag boom, is closing its UK print edition after 14 years and will become online only in Britain from next month.

The final UK issue of the Dennis Publishing title, the June edition, will be on sale from 23 April. The US edition will replace it on newsstands in the UK.

Dennis said the closure put 12 jobs at risk and there would be a period of consultation.

Maxim was launched by Dennis in 1995 as the company's entry into the then booming lads' mag market following the success of titles such as Loaded.

"The Maxim brand remains the best-selling men's lifestyle magazine in the world, but Dennis Publishing must move with the times and recognise that the future of the brand in the UK is online," said the publisher's chief executive, James Tye.

"We are extremely proud of what Maxim UK has achieved. As a print magazine, it was at the forefront of the UK lifestyle market and as a website it will continue to inform and entertain thousands of readers every day," Tye added.

UK subscribers to Maxim will be offered subscriptions to the US edition or other Dennis Publishing men's lifestyle titles.

Dennis Publishing now holds the digital publishing rights to Maxim in the UK, which is licensed by Alpha Media, which bought the Maxim trademark in August 2007.

Maxim's circulation has been in a tailspin for several years, falling a massive 41.4% year on year in the second half of 2008 to just 45,951.

At its peak in 2000, Maxim sold 328,000 copies a month, making it third in the men's magazine market behind Loaded and FHM.

In recent years Maxim has suffered as weekly lads' mags Zoo and Nuts have eaten into sales of the longer established monthly men's titles.

Back in the 1990s, Dennis's expertise in the computer industry allowed the magazine to cover mount a CD-Rom on its fourth issue.

After Emap failed to get a joint venture to launch FHM in America with Dennis and Heart, Dennis launched Maxim in the US in 1997.

Despite a sniffy reaction from the US magazine establishment, the American edition was a monster success, with more than triple GQ's sales by 2003. Maxim still sells about 2.5m copies in the US.

Dennis then launched Maxim Fashion and Stuff in the US and a host of international editions of Maxim, including in India and China. In France the magazine is called Maximal and in Portugal Maxmen.

In the US the phenomenon was such that in 2006 Felix Dennis announced plans to build a billion-dollar Maxim Hotel and Casino, although the project failed to get off the ground.

In 2007 Dennis Publishing sold its US magazine interests including Maxim, Stuff and Blender to private equity partners Quadrangle Capital Partners, who own Alpha Media, for a price reported at the time to be about $240m (£121m).

The deal was widely believed to include a clause that forced Dennis to continue publishing the UK edition for several years. Dennis said today it had renewed the licensing agreement in the wake of the magazine moving online.

Maxim's closure in the UK comes after Bauer Media closed upmarket men's title Arena last month after 22 years.

Lads' magazines are suffering heavy declines across the board. IPC's Nuts fell 13.3% year on year to an average weekly circulation of 234,034 in the six months to December 2008; while weekly rival Zoo, from Bauer Media, fell 18.7% year on year to 145,555.

IPC's Loaded fell 21.7% year on year to 90,071, while Bauer Media's FHM fell 13.5% to 272,545.

Bucking the trend is NatMag Rodale's Men's Health, up 4.1% to 250,094 in the second half of 2008, from the same period in 2007.

The men's sector is dominated by the two free weekly titles, Shortlist and Sport. Shortlist's distribution was up 5.1% on the previous six months to 505,970, while Sport's was up 1.3% on the first half of 2008, but flat year on year, at 317,257.

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