• Ad Age, Thursday, April 6, 2006 11 AM

Felix Dennis, the British magazine mogul who has been so successful in bringing his brand of lad journalism to the U.S., is said to be leaving our market.  If so, this would be read as an acknowledgement that the lad titles, white-hot only a couple of years ago, have cooled significantly, and that it's better from Dennis' view to get out now than ride the market down.  In addition to Maxim, his American flagship, Ad Age reports that Dennis is preparing to put Blender and Stuff up for sale.  (He's thought to want to maintain ownership of The Week, which is a personal pet project.)  Maxim in particular has lost its former luster and is planning a slight repositioning later this year aimed at attracting somewhat more mature male readers.  "Any buyer [of Dennis' properties] that emerges could reshape the magazine business in the U.S. by consolidating with its own titles that reach young men, adding new strength to a smaller player or bringing in new, aggressive capital that would ramp up investment in the company," writes Nat Ives of Ad Age.

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