fhm

FHM, an abbreviation for For Him Magazine, is a monthly men's magazine. The magazine was first published as FHM in 1994 in the United Kingdom, but was originally published in 1985 under the name For Him. Founded by Chris Astridge, For Him was originally distributed through high street men's fashion outlets, expanding to newsagents as a quarterly by the spring of 1987. It was a predominantly fashion-based publication.

After the emergence of James Brown's Loaded magazine (regarded as the blueprint for the lad mags genre) and later competing titles such as GQ and Esquire, For Him hardened up its editorial approach to compete with the expanding market and introduced a sports supplement. It then went monthly and changed its name to FHM. It subsequently expanded internationally. As of August 2005, it publishes 27 editions per month including editions in Russia, the United States, Norway, Denmark, Romania, Croatia, Australia, Estonia, New Zealand, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Indonesia, Taiwan, Portugal, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Singapore, Greece and Turkey.

FHM, produced by the consumer media division of publishing giant EMAP, was launched as a response to the success of Loaded, launched by IPC Media the previous year. Like Loaded, FHM arguably relies heavily on the appeal of photographs of scantily-clad women. Unlike many magazines, FHM prints photographs of women already famous for reasons other than their beauty - such as actresses and pop singers. Also, unlike pornographic magazines, genitals and nipples are hidden by underwear or props. Thus, FHM is typically stocked in the lifestyle rather than adult section on newsstands, although Wal-Mart banned lad mags in 2003. Lately, the showing of nipples has been put into FHM photoshoots - though many celebrities refuse to show them. This is possibly a result of a decline in sales, trying new things to attract a bigger audience. Like similar magazines such as Maxim, its large quantity of surveys, humour, dramatic tales and informed reviews of everything from movies to remote controlled blimps has created a readership that ostensibly "read it for the articles".

The magazine is printed on high-quality glossy paper and the photography is of high technical quality. FHM became the best-selling magazine in Britain during the mid to late 1990s, selling 700,000 copies per month. Towards the end of the decade the lads' culture in which the magazine thrived began to die off and publishers turned to celebrity-oriented titles to boost overall sales. Heat overtook FHM as the UK's biggest selling magazine.

As well as the photo shoots, the magazine contains articles on a wide variety of topics, including profiles of sports stars, movie, music, technology and book reviews, gossip, men's fashion shoots, the "bar scene" in a variety of locations, and extensive discussion of sexual techniques.

FHM TV

FHM TV is also a music television station in the UK. It timeshares with (and broadcasts on the same channel as) fellow EMAP-owned music channel Q TV. The channel plays music from "sexy ladies" as well as some rock music.

See also

• Glamour photography
• List of men's magazines

External links

• Official FHM web site
• Official FHM US web site
• Official FHM Philippines site
• A BBC article on a report that the anti-intellectual stance of FHM and other lads' mags was partly responsible for decreased exam performance in males.
• A 1999 BBC report on the first ever decline in FHM sales, from a record high in 1998.