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If I am going to read bubble gum, Modern Drunkard Magazine is my flavor of choice. Good articles on the lost art of the bender and scathing exposés on how Jack Daniels changed their hundred year old recipe by lowering the alcohol content. But most other "men's" magazines are so product oriented it doesn't keep my attention. And softcore retouched pr0n aint really my thing. I also subscribe to Juxtapos and Metropolis, just so you don't think I'm Charles Bukowski's illegitimate son. Although I do have his liver.
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I'm not a big fan of some of Esquire's content, though I still sometimes buy it because Tom Chiarella teaches at my alma mater. I'll never forget an issue being passed around the office with an "exclusive" on a big scandal. The story very clearly had a single source (with a vested interest in spinning it one way) with a few quotes from a second source that very obviously had no desire to talk to the reporter. It was the top-billed story in the issue. It seemed like pretty shoddy work to me, but I try to give Esquire another chance every 6 months or so.
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Martha's back.
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Kevin-LOL!
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Monday, March 7, 2005. 07:51AM
by
Kim S
Hi guys, been sledding in the mountains... My husband bought Maxim at the stand a few times. I think he was more interested in the girlie pics than the content. Do men actually read this kind of stuff? Like Christien says, probably not. I'll tell you what he does read: men stuff like sport fishing, boating, cars, national geo, aviator, popular science... stuff where he can actually get some new information about things of interest to him. I have never seen a man read a magazine... I guess "bathroom" material is a secret world unto itself. And yes, like cosmo how much can you go over the same ground?? Honestly, I "look" at glamor, cosmo and the like for the ads. Do men read GQ and Esquire more than women? Anybody know? okay that's my two cents...
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Maxim kinda reminds me of AdAge. Like, when I see a Maxim cover, I expect to see a hot girl, an interview with said hot girl, some review on a video game, something about electronics, something about some testosterone movie, and something about sports. With Ad Age, you're going to see something about some goon getting hired at some agency, that online ad spending is up another bazillion percent, that Hispanic marketing is still screwed up, and that some ad you've never seen is crazy brilliant. Formulas. That they sell doesn't amaze me. That anybody who wants to make things happen talk to people who read these magazines does.
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The editor of Esquire was on Charlie Rose last night. Rose asked him about these so-called "ladd" titles, and he said that he thought that Maxim, in particular, had carved out a niche in the market for itself and that it would probably survive.
I, too, have had a subscription to Esquire for many years. Although, since their new editor came on, I've felt that the writing wasn't nearly as challenging as it was back in the 1980s. And the Dubious Achievement Awards get worse and worse every year. But I keep renewing, because it's inexpensive and mildly entertaining. If I'd taken a subscription to Maxim, I can't say that I'd do the same. I imagine that after a year or two, it would get pretty tired.
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They all keep rewriting the same article, which is some variation on "101 Ways To Get A Girl To Have Wild, Uninhibited Sex With You (with another woman) (in any city) (while on vacation) (even if you work together." Then, advice that would never practically work in the real world is what you get once you spend the $5. None of those articles ever worked for me. OK, anyhow, I gotta go finish my "How to pick up girls by starting your very own advertising industry community" article for FHM.
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thank you guys for the feedback, very interesting -- especially since I do planning/buying for men's watches. admittedly i enjoy some of the men's books more than the women's b/c our categories are so saturated with titles (and the launches continue!) also, many are cluttered with those redundant and often non-compelling articles. esquire is arguably a dual-audience publication being about 60/40 male/female and it's one of my favorites--very witty!
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Friday, March 4, 2005. 02:00PM
by
M W
i'll admit i was initially intrigued by one of them a handful of years ago when jessica biel posted nearly naked...i was curious to see her, but i have no idea whether it was stuff, fhm or maxim. i know for a fact it was not gq or details. there's always going to be fights for ad revenue for fashion magazines, but gq seems to try to reinvent itself to some degree every year or two, so they can keep up with the needs of young men while continuing to build on its equity. it's a good example of gimmick and wannnabe products that just don't have the staying power of the original. i certainly feel cargo differenitates itself and i love that magazine. it fills a gap (products/gadgets), men's health is also a good magazine for filling a need. i agree with mark on espn acting like a hyper, hip sports magazine, but it fills no need for me (despite my free subscription thanks to american express rewards) because all that sports stuff...i find it on the web two weeks before it's in the magazine. now, back to maxim, in fact, i'd be less embarassed buying penthouse than maxim.
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I'm an Esquire reader too - it's the only men's magazine I can relate to. Capers is right, the writing is very good. Maxim, FHM, and the like are just too juvenile for me. Other mags I get: Harper's, Runner's World, Outside, Business 2.0. If I'm traveling I'll usually buy The Economist or The Atlantic off the shelf.
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Maxim's first few issues were terrific. They were also the only issues where the top editor was a woman. She moved on very quickly, and the magazine had a few things here and there that kept it popular, like the 50 Reasons Why It's Great to be a Guy.
Now, it's unremarkable. The market is flooded with these magazines, including British versions of the same.
Maybe they ran out of ideas, maybe I'm just older, I don't know. I do know that I rarely buy these magazines now because I rarely find anything entertaining or informing enough to spend $5 on.
I like The Economist, but readily admit that their pictures aren't as fun.
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I found those magazines pretty irreverent and fun 5 years ago. But I stopped reading them. The joke is tired. Even ESPN the Magazine, which picked up their tone, minus the sex is tired.
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I read Maxim for a while when it came out simply because I got them for free. My girlfriend at the time was a flight attendant, and would take one every month from the free magazine stand for the NYC shuttle. She loved the jokes, then would drop them off for me to read. I think I spent more time trying to get a joke submitted, but never got one in. Eventually, that's all it became. The content really hasn't been all that interesting, ever. The part that killed me was that I knew some of the writers -- they all seemed like they were cool in the mags, but when I met them, they were these loners in NYC who never had girlfriends, and would be beat up in public if they spoke the way they wrote. Pulling away the curtain ruined it for me, and I couldn't go back.
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Okay, I'm the same as Capers, but I was in the demo when these mags were at their peak. Many of my friends at schools around the country subscribed to the three. Like 15 guys would pitch in for the subscriptions to FHM, Maxim etc. I was never into it though. In my eyes, it gets old very soon. But most like to look. I think as they've become desensitized to it the effect has worn off, so guys aren't as interested. most of them would never read the articles inside. i asked my best friend, why don't you just subscribe to playboy. better articles, better pics i said. with a puzzled look he said i dont know good point. the cosmos on the women side and the maxims on the other side all do the same thing though by recycling their material under a different mask every year. how many different ways are there to clean your pores or tell a girl you have to wake up early?
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Okay, I'll be the first in on this discussion. I subscribe to Esquire because I find it interesting, the fiction appeals to me. I was never a Maxim guy or FHM or any of the other ones. Who reads these things? I read news magazines a couple of industry rags and some vertical photography mags because it's a big hobby. I'm sure i wasn't the target anyway, In my 40's and married for 18 years probably not the demographic they were looking for. Do women feel the same way about Cosmo? Just curious
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