It's raining men: an outpouring of new titles threatens to flood the market

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, June, 1990 by Cary Peyton Rich

An outpouring of new titles threatens to flood the market

NEW YORK CITY-We're barely into the nineties and already some have labeled it the decade of the American man. Not surprisingly, a new crop of men's magazines, seeking to dethrone GQ and Esquire, is eager to cash in on the hype.

Hard to believe it's been a scant two years SinCe Terry McDonell stirred up the category by launching Smart, which he says was the start of the current rush-only partly joking. "When I first went out there, people said, 'You're kidding. What men's market?' "

Now the market is on the brink of an explosion, with four magazines poised to make their debuts before the year is over: Men, Murdoch's Men's Life, Healthy man and a repositioned Details. That doubles the number of titles in the men's lifestyle/ service category, and more than one industry observer is wondering if men really want or need afl those magazines.

Not that the reigning titles are too worried. "I can't imagine a worse time to be starting up a magazine," says Randy jones, publisher of Esquire. "All magazines are going through hard times. It's tough out there. I, frankly, would not want to be in their shoes." But he also notes that when competition increases, the industry leaders often gain.

Are there enough ad pages to support nine magazines? It's interesting to note that the category hasn't seen a dramatic increase in ad pages over the last five years. According to Publisher's Information Bureau (PIB) figures, ad pages for Esquire, M and GQ have gone from 3,910.88 in 1985 to 4,428.28 in 1989, an increase of only 517.4 pages. GQ leads the field in number of ad pages, with 2,231.04 in 1989. Esquire had 1,331. 10 and M, 866.14 during the same year. Revenues for the three were up in 1989, according to PIB estimates: Esquire, 21.3 percent; GQ, 13.2 percent; and M, 7.1 percent.

But why now?

James B. Kobak, a magazine consultant, admits he doesn't know why so many men's titles are starting up now. But it isn't the first time several people have come up with the same idea at the same time, he observes. "The same thing happened in the science category a few years ago. And a lot of people lost a lot of money."

Circulation possibilities may be another reason so many titles are jumping on the men's bandwagon, says Sarah Crowley, associate media director of Hill, Holliday in Boston. Penthouse and Playboy have lost many readers over the last seven or eight years, Crowley notes, and no one is quite sure where those readers have gone. "These [new] magazines are trying to find them," she says. While observing that Penthouse and Playboy seem to have fallen out of vogue with readers, Crowley points out that the titles are repositioning themselves and are still healthy."

The fashion industry has been looking for a way to target the men's audience, adds Crowley. "There's been a definite shortage," she says. "I think two or three more [men's magazines] could succeed, I don't see them all succeeding." There aren't enough ad pages to support all the proposed new titles, she maintains. Esquire's Jones thinks there's a "pendulum effect." The seventies and eighties were dominated by the women's magazines, he says, adding, "Men took a back seat. Now I think a lot of marketers see that there are 120 million male bodies out there that perhaps have not been given the time and attention they so richly deserve." Jones also remarks, "If Esquire is the most upscale men's magazine and GQ goes to a younger, more fashion-conscious audience, then I think there is room for a more mass-oriented magazine without skin."

The new players

"Ever since high school or college, there hasn't been a magazine I love," says Chris Kimball, publisher of Men. "There's nothing I rush to buy, nothing exciting. There's got to be a magazine that's diverting, manly, fun and witty." Fimball describes his oversize, matte-finish publication, set to hit newsstands this fall, as "a Boy Scout handbook for the nineties."

Leo Scullin, publisher of Men's Life, says he and editor Barry Golsen had separately been tracking the potential men's category for five years: Scullin, from the marketing angle and Golsen, from the editorial perspective. Scullin echoes Kimball's lament that there isn't a broad-based, general interest magazine for men. Men's Life won't be "filtered through one particular lens such as health, fashion, literature or sports," Scullin says. With an initial rate base of 250,000, the title is to premiere as a quarterly in September.

Healthy Man has chosen to filter itself through the health and fitness lens, while still describing itself as a lifestyle publication. "I think that the [men's] market is really quite crowded. GQ and Esquire are really quite established," says Jay Rosenfield, president, editor in chief and publisher. " [The new magazines] are going to steal market share from one another. That's the reason we didn't want to go head to head with those guys." Rosenfield considers Men's Health his major competition.

The revamped Details, once a trendy, "downtown" title, comes closest of the new entries to tapping GQ's or Esquire's market. Emphasizing style, fashion, grooming, sex, politics and adventure, Details targets a younger audience than Men, Men's Life or Healthy Man: those who are 18 to 34 years old. Macho, macho man