Who’s Winning the Battle of the Men’s Magazines Online?

Maxim is currently the most popular men’s lifestyle magazine site, according to latest figures released by Nielsen//NetRatings.

The site attracted 479,000 unique visitors in January, 100,000 more than second placed FHM.

Whilst those two have an established online presence, it is arguable that the newly launched digital magazine, Monkey, is making itself felt the most (see Men’s Magazines In An Online Era).

It achieved 347,000 visitors in January, and according to Nielsen//NetRatings, was the most popular site in November and December of last year.

Dennis Publishing provided the three fastest growing men’s magazines online over the past quarter, with Bizarre, Maxim and Monkey all showing very healthy increases in user numbers.

Perhaps most interesting is the fact that the sector as a whole appears to be showing clear signs of growth. Nine of the top ten magazines recorded a rise, and the only exception, Men’s Health, saw usage drop by just 2%.

This is in clear contrast to the men’s print magazine market, which saw most titles record significant losses in the latest ABCs (see ABC Results Jul-Dec 2006:Large Declines For Men’s Mags).

Whilst the likes of Maxim, FHM and Loaded appear to be having no difficulty in attracting more people to their sites, their print editions continue to suffer.

Alex Burmaster, European internet analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings, said: “The impressive growth in online numbers is in stark contrast to the recently published print figures that showed circulation falls for most of the leading players.

“Taken together with Dennis’ launch of the digital-only Monkey, the trends show what an important battleground the online space has already become to traditional publishers.”