Women have always been popular with publishers and print advertisers.There are currently around 20 large to mid-size women's magazines in Latin America. But what about the men? How have men's magazines succeeded with Spanish-speaking audiences? Although magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse have been present in Latin America for a long time, Maxim is the only major men's magazine launch in recent years. Dennis Publishing partners with Editorial Televisa to publish Maxim en español, which has a circulation of 150,000 in Mexico and a paid circulation of 50,000 in the U.S. Hispanic market (full page 4 color rate US $6,300, CPM US $126).
Editorial Televisa also publishes other men's lifestyle magazines such as Men's Health en español, a monthly with a circulation of 200,000 in Mexico and 35,000 (CPM US $171.40) in the U.S. Hispanic market. The magazine targets university students and young professionals between the ages of 19 and 34, and focuses mainly on issues related to sex/relationships, health and nutirition, and fitness. Men's Health en español, published in Latin America through a Rodale franchise, sells most of its ad space in the automotive, health and entertaiment categories.
Sources at Televisa say that there are no current plans to launch a new men's maga-zine. Other men's magazines in the Mexican market include H para Hombre (Editorial Notmusa, monthly, circ.83,000), Max (Editorial Premiere, monthly, circ. 65,000, CPM US $83.7), launched in 1999, and Latinos (monthly, circ 120,000) published by Mina Editores. According to CANIEM (Camara Nacional de la Industria Editorial Mexicana) 110 different men's magazines were published in Mexico last year.
In June 2001, Publicaciones Semana launched the men's magazine SoHo (monthly, circ. 72,000) in Colombia. The magazine is also available in Ecuador. Spain's Grupo Zeta publishes the monthly Man (circ. 88,000), distributed mainly in Spain, but also available for purchase on many Latin American newsstands.
…A LOFTty panregional strategy.
The men's monthly magazine LOFT has a distinctively panregional strategy. Launched in September 2001 by professionals who had worked at SoHo, LOFT is published by Zoom Media Group, a Miami based publisher backed by Citigroup Venture Capital, Pacific Rim, Bank of America and Diario El Universal (Venezuela). The CPMs (cost per thousand issues of circulation for a full-page full color ad) for each of LOFT's editions reflects the differences in the markets where the magazine is sold. Generally, the smaller the market, the higher the CPM. LOFT' s panregional edition (total circ. 100,000) has a CPM of US $70, the Mexican edition (circ. 25,000) has a CPM of US $156, and the Colombian/Venezuelan edition (Colombia circ. 10,000, Venezuela/Panama circ. 5,000) US $116.60. LOFT USA has a total circulation of 60,000 (New York 15,000, Los Angeles 7,500, Texas 7,500, Miami 30,000) and a CPM of US $66.60, and the Miami edition (circ. 30,000) has an open rate of US $106.66.
While the editorial quality of LOFT is high, it remains to be seen whether the magazine will be an advertising success. Until now LOFT's ad-page count has been dominated by real estate advertising, while luxury goods and large U.S. brands are not frequent.
