Having seen inside FHM and Zoo, here's why I think they've had to close

A former reader and contributor for both magazines, it’s sad to see them go. But men now rely on WhatsApp group chats and smaller niche titles for their kicks, rather than monthly retrospectives.

FHM began in 1985 (FHM online )

FHM and Zoo are to close, it’s been announced this week, but that isn’t to say the lad is dead. The LadBible is now the 12th most popular website in the UK, allegedly boasting 27 million unique users a month. Its younger brother TheSportbible has over 8 million uniques a month. They’ve recently hired Vice’s deputy managing editor Ian Moore to help it pivot from its beer, boobs and banter branding into a more legitimate media website. The ‘lad’ may be changing, then, but he’s certainly not in his grave.

I’ve written for both Zoo and FHM in my time, on work experience at the beginning of my journalistic career, and count many of the writers as my friends. It’s sad for me to see people like these lose their jobs, although I can appreciate that the market was depreciating for some time. And it’s not neccesarily because people were becoming more moralistic about seeing boobs in print.

Consider Playboy’s recent move to drop topless models from its title. The business move was described as less a response to us living in a more enlightened time in terms of sex and gender discussion, but instead a realigning of their business models to the new “viral” news model that better works in the age of social media. The free availability of online porn can’t exactly have helped.

Where instead of hurriedly shoving a copy of Zoo magazine down the back of your bed, hoping no one notices, British men are opting to use the internet for their visual kicks. Instead of buying one of these legacy magazines for a train journey, hospital visit, or any other time you might read a print magazine, newer smaller boutique titles scratch an itch instead of another retrospect on Britpop. Where once we had to pay £4 a month for a magazine where maybe one feature appealed, and a questionable photo-shoot made it unsafe for public consumption, now we can pay £8 a year for issues guaranteed to cater for our interests, without having to deal with potential public ridicule or private shame.

Where both FHM and Zoo thrived in harnessing the power of reader relationships, it got a bit harder for both when those same readers hit their mid-thirties and needed replacing by a newer, more media-savvy consumer.

The passing of FHM and Zoo perhaps instead reflect the changing of the guard on where your average British bloke goes for his reading – and his viewing - kicks. A starred-out reality TV star’s nipple can’t compete with sites like PornHub, and a feature on the greatness that was the early nineties is a harder sell for men born after the breakup of Nirvana.

That isn’t to say isn’t to say that there is no longer a space for the men interest print magazine. Quality ‘freemium’ publications such as Shortlist and Coach, along with the rise in smaller, niche machines on football, fitness, fashion and literature, continue to thrive. But FHM and its sister have failed to make it in the same way, perhaps because of their nineties associations.

There is the possibility of resurrection on the horizon, however. Loaded magazine has returned from the ashes this month in an online-focused venture supports this claim. Perhaps we haven’t seen the back of FHM and Zoo – but if we have, there’s a large part of my nostalgic self which will be sad to see them go.