《GQ》
《GQ》
For nearly half a century, GQ has been a leading voice in men's magazines, covering men's style and culture from fashion and politics to travel, entertainment, sports, technology and relationships. It all began in 1931, when Apparel Arts was founded as a men's fashion magazine for the clothing trade. Published in New York City, its purpose was to provide information on men's fashion to wholesale buyers and retail sellers, who in turn could then make recommendations to their customers. The elaborate quarterly contained actual samples of fabrics pasted within its pages; it cost $1.50 per copy, with an initial circulation was 7,500. Apparel Arts was so attractive that customers in stores frequently ran off with the copies. Sensing a market for such a product, the magazine's publishers decided to launch a men's fashion magazine for the general public. Thus, Esquire magazine (at 50 cents a copy) was born in 1933. Apparel Arts not only become the fashion bible for middle-class American men, it also spawned a magazine that has remained popular for more than 70 years.
《Penthouse》
《Penthouse》
Penthouse Magazine was introduced in 1965. Bug Guccione, sensing that the sexuality of men would be a popular niche introduced what has become one of the worlds enduring icons.
The sexually explicit content of the magazine paved barreled into the common households and stayed on top of its rival, Playboy Magazine in terms of sales and popularity. Four years later, Guccione expanded the operations of Penthouse Magazine as the publication began being published in the United States.
《Maxim》
《Maxim》
Just a decade ago it would have been a rarity to find a marginal actress like Kate Bosworth in a bathtub on the cover of GQ (GQ, January 2005). (To Maxim’s credit, the pre-Maxim idea of the “man’s” magazine, outside Playboy, was fairly pseudo-intellectual and not entirely without its populist critics.)
In addition to the lowest-common-denominator boobification of existing men’s mags, Maxim’s success has also inspired numerous facsimiles.
The magazine has now grown to over 30 international editions boasting a circulation of over 2.5 million in the US alone, the median age of which is an advertising-wet-dream: 25.3. Maxim claims this 25-year-old average has a median income of US$ 63,000+ per year. Despite the UK version (third in its category after FHM and Loaded) being threatened by the launch of weeklies like Nuts and Zoo, and though the US version may soon face weekly competition as well, Maxim remains the most dominant fish in the global men’s lifestyle magazine pond. To maintain this dominance Maxim has devised a two-prong strategy.
《Playboy》
Playboy was founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953. Quickly becoming known for it's thrilling Playboy Magazine photos of beautiful women, sales skyrocketed and Playboy Enterprises took off. Each magazine contains a featured playmate, interviews, fiction writing, and classic playboy magazine art. The company has since developed into a multi-faceted operation that handles publishing, entertaining, licensing, and Online sales and publishing, and a multi-million dollar philanthropic Foundation. Playboy remains the leading men's magazine today.
《Playboy》