FHM, the Axe Body Spray of Men's Magazines, Is Done

FHM, the men’s magazine that looks how Axe smells, is done for. Bauer Media plans to shut down the magazine, launched in 1985, for good.

Mashable reports that Bauer Media, the publisher behind both FHM and Zoo (also shuttering) released a statement today which confirms that the magazines are dead, effective immediately. According to the statement released by the company, FHM saw a huge increase in sales in the ‘90s (when the magazine went from a quarterly to a monthly), but even with its online arm and international editions, readership had declined steadily, making the publication unprofitable to run.

From Bauer’s statement, both celebrating the magazine’s previous success and announcing its end:

FHM is perhaps best known for its world famous ‘100 Sexiest Women in the World’ poll which celebrated 21 years in May. The annual poll has helped propel the careers of many well-known actresses, musicians and models. The first ever winner in 1999 was Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar and this year British actress Michelle Keegan took the top honours.

Bauer added:

Over time young men’s media habits have continually moved towards mobile and social and today FHM and ZOO have a combined digital audience of over 5 million.

Despite the decent-ish numbers that FHM is pulling online, The New Statesman reports that the website associated with the publication will also be shutting down, joining Zoo, Nuts, and Loaded in the big paper shredder in the sky.

Mashable suggests that the magazines’ end could be due, in part, to the fact that the objectification of women has been highly criticized in the recent past, inspiring movements such as #losetheladsmags. The New Statesman, however, suggests that it’s online porn that may really be spelling the end of magazines targeted towards young men, which is what Playboy cited in their decision to get rid of nude women in their magazine.

The end of lifestyle publications isn’t just limited to magazines geared towards heterosexual men. XY, a magazine for young gay men ended its run in 2007, Genre closed down in 2008, and Instinct Magazine suspended its print edition in July.