Robin Parker, Media Week, 14 December 2006, 1:04pm

Emap blames tough ad market for FHM's US exit

Emap has closed the US edition of FHM after ad revenues fell by 20% year-on-year in the six months to 30 September.

The publisher said it was hard to make the title work for the largely subscription-based US market. Almost 30% of FHM's sales were at newsstands, making it harder to guarantee circulation to advertisers.
The March 2007 issue of FHM US, on sale on 6 February, will be the last.
Emap said the move has not affected any of the other 30 international editions of FHM.
The closure affects 47 staff, though some will continue to work on its website, fhmus.com, which will continue to operate.
Emap launched FHM in the US in 1999 and it sells around 1.25m copies a month, but in a reverse of the UK market, it trails behind Dennis Publishing's market-leading Maxim.
Both titles, along with Stuff, also published by Dennis in the US, have been hit by the migration of advertising online. In the twelve months to October, the three titles lost 11% of ad volume, around 300 display pages.