Maxim magazine publisher to explore sale

By Kenneth Li

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dennis Publishing Inc., publisher of "lad magazine" Maxim, said it was exploring strategic alternatives, including a possible sale, as the number of readers of men's magazines falls.

The company hired media bankers Allen & Co. as its exclusive financial adviser.

Dennis, which also owns lad magazine Stuff and music magazine Blender, is credited with resuscitating the men's magazine sector with publications featuring glossy spreads of scantily clad women.

Maxim, launched in the mid-nineties in the United Kingdom, made its U.S. debut in 1997.

Felix Dennis, the company's outspoken and colorful billionaire owner, has been cast by the media as a modern Hugh Hefner, founder of adult entertainment magazine Playboy Enterprises Inc..

Dennis, who resides in the UK, has made no secret of his desire to leave the media business. The company put its U.S. operations up for sale last year, according to published reports.

There are 31 international editions of Maxim magazine in 45 countries, including the United States, UK and Thailand.

The company also owns The Week magazine, a political and news weekly roundup of events and opinion.

Circulation at key titles, including Maxim, has fallen as the buzz of the new generation of men's magazines faded.

Although total paid North American circulation has held steady at 2.5 million, newsstand sales fell 12.2 percent in the second half of last year, according to publishers' figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations this week.

Stuff magazine newsstand sales fell 35 percent and total paid circulation fell 4.8 percent in the same period.

Total paid circulation for Blender rose 7.4 percent in the second half of 2006.

In the UK and Ireland, circulation in the men's lifestyle sector was down 14.4 percent. Men's magazine FHM saw circulation fall 25.9 percent, while Loaded, Maxim and Arena fell almost 30 percent.

Dennis Publishing also owns Maxim-themed hotel and casinos, restaurants, bars, clubs, furniture, satellite radio stations and Web sites.

(Additional reporting by Kate Holton in London)