News this week in the glamour photography and glamour modelling world is that ‘Nuts’ magazine may be being chopped from newsagents’ top shelves as it is potentially facing closure.

Launched in January 2004, Nuts was the UK’s first mainstream weekly ‘lads mag’.  It was joined by rival magazine ‘Zoo’ just a week later and over the last 10 years the magazines have placed emphasis on featuring ‘real girls’.  It has long been the dream of many an aspiring glamour model to be featured in the pages of Nuts and Zoo. 

The news about Nuts comes just a couple of months after another lads mag ‘Front’ also took the decision to close its doors after 16 years in print.  Apparently average sales of Front had been falling to around 30,000 copies per month.  Front pushed boundaries with an irreverent mix of  footie humour, cunning stunts and tattooed girls with attitude.  It even coined its own style of glamour modelling, with many models and photographers favouring  ‘Front style’ images.

Nuts magazine is possibly facing closure like Front

I’ve only bought the odd copy of Nuts (and Zoo) over the years, usually when a model I have photographed has appeared.  I can recall buying Front just the once.  I used to regularly buy ‘Maxim’ magazine until it too closed down, in printed form, in 2009, ironically amid claims that weekly rivals Nuts and Zoo were eating away at its print sales.  The publishers of Maxim perhaps saw the way the mens magazine / lads mag market was heading and took the decision to put their energies into boosting their Internet presence. 

Ice and Maxim magazines

The first mens magazine I can remember buying was ‘For Him Magazine’ back in the 1980s (great decade!)  You’ll know it now as FHM, which it changed to in 1994.  FHM is still going strong after almost 30 years, though the magazine seems a lot thinner now.  Other magazines I’ve dabbled with include ‘Loaded’ and ‘Ice’ (anyone remember it?)

So, what is the future for mens magazines and lads mags?  Is everything moving online?  Will we still be buying magazines in a few years’ time?  I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a laggard in that I still prefer to pick up a photography book or a magazine rather than read it on my Tablet – but I sense I’m in a minority.  One concession that I’ve made to the changing times is that I now carry my photography portfolio on a 10″ Tablet and rarely use my printed portfolio anymore.

In 1981 the first music video ever shown on music TV channel MTV was The Buggles singing ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’.  Did the Internet kill lads mags…?  We shall see.

I finish with some photographs of Megan, who during our shoot asked if we could do a few ‘Front style’ images.  Click to enlarge and I hope you enjoy.  Thank-you for reading and please feel free to post a comment below.