IT WAS not long ago that all a men’s monthly needed to do to secure readers was put Kelly Brook or Pamela Anderson on the front cover. Cover prices were high and advertisers would line up to have the latest gadgets and scents appearing in FHM and Loaded.

However, weeklies — IPC’s Nuts and Emap’s Zoo were launched within a week of each other at the start of 2004 — have eaten into the circulation figures of most of the monthlies. The established titles are now faced with the challenge of clearly distinguishing themselves from their weekly rivals or facing closure.

This decline is seen in August’s ABC magazine circulation figures. Dennis Publishing’s Maxim suffered most, losing 35.8 per cent of its circulation over a year to record average sales of 146,043 in the first half of this year.

The IPC monthly Loaded sold an average 185,268 in January to June, down 21.9 per cent year on year. Emap’s FHM, the top-selling lads’ mag, also suffered. Its circulation fell 24.9 per cent to 420,688.

So why did the UK’s biggest magazine groups, IPC and Emap, knowingly cut into their own circulation figures by launching weekly titles? “It was a case of if we didn’t do it, then someone else would. We knew it would have an effect on circulation figures at the monthlies,” said Marcus Rich, managing director of Emap advertising and ECM lifestyle magazines.

Mr Rich, who was responsible for acquiring FHM from Tayvale in 1994, said that there was a definite appetite before the launch of the weeklies for a new kind of men’s magazine to appeal to younger readers, and he breaks up the men’s mag readers into two. Tempered hedonists — a man in his mid to late 20s — read the monthly. He wants a more information-based magazine, as he is now focused on his career. Meanwhile, the “player”, younger, less sophisticated, is supposed to read the weeklies.

Eric Fuller, new managing director of IPC ignite!, is aware that the impact on circulation at the monthlies was inevitable, but said it was necessary “to do something dramatic to stimulate readers and advertisers”.

The shift appears to have had a dramatic impact on advertisers. Mr Rich says: “We’ve found that advertisers launching a DVD, video game or gadget — and with a relatively short amount of time to get their message across — will opt for weekly advertising. Monthly advertising tends to be more brand-driven.”

However, there are men’s monthlies that have held or increased their circulation figures despite the onslaught from the weeklies. Mr Fuller mentions GQ, a title from rival magazine publisher Condé Nast, which he says “has established a clear difference”. GQ’s circulation was up 1.4 per cent year on year in the recent ABCs to 126,797.

GQ believes it needs to remain as an upmarket men’s lifestyle magazine, keeping key columnists and branching out with the launch of new titles like GQ Style and a soon-to-launch travel magazine. The title has kept its cover price of £3.60, with others dropping their prices below the £3 mark. The current cover price of both Nuts and Zoo is £1.30.

Jamie Bill, publishing director at GQ, says the decline of men’s monthlies should not be blamed on weeklies but the number of titles choosing “to follow them downhill”.

“Monthly magazines need to have a clear view of who their readers are in order to compete in this market. I’m not sure if most of them have that.”

Yet, even Nuts and Zoo both saw declines in the recent ABCs. Nuts was down just 0.7per cent to 304,785 and flat year on year, while Emap’s Zoo fell 12.5 per cent on the previous ABC period to 228,024, with a year-on-year decline of 12.4 per cent. This comes as many young men are supposedly shying away from magazines in favour of the internet. The challenge facing these magazines is to exploit the strength of these brands online and through other media channels.

Mr Fuller said that he was keen to exploit the brand further by offering more video and broadband television through Nuts.co.uk. He wants to use the magazine brand to create a television channel, working with Turner Broadcasting, which is also owned by IPC’s parent company, Time Warner. There is also the hope that mobile will increasingly become a more important revenue stream, with the sale of picture and text downloads.

Mr Fuller says that he wouldn’t be surprised if we saw more internet-only men’s weeklies — which may be a hint on his company’s thinking.

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