FHM Folds

For some it is the end of an era, an era of sexy cover models and pin-up model centerfolds.

Earlier this month, the British publisher Emap announced the end of FHM, a magazine with a circulation of 1.25 million as reported in Socialite Life.

The sudden announcement was made after a 19.7 percent drop in advertisement in the first 11 months of the year.

One million-plus readers or not, the trends were clear. What had been a white-hot niche in publishing has gone cold. Even Maxim, the circulation leader in the men's category with a rate base of 2.5 million, is down 5 percent in advertising pages this year from the year before, and the lucrative newsstand sales are down more than 200,000 in the last three years.

There's no telling how this will effect the upscale men's magazines like GQ and Esquire which had shifted to compete with these so-called "Lad Magazines". One thing's for sure, the king of men's magazines, however unfortunate, Playboy, isn't going anywhere.