How FHM readers lost their safe space

‘A victory for feminism,’ came the cries this week, as news broke that FHM was to close after 20 years. Then came a rush of virtue-signalling males proclaiming that they were surprised anyone still read that old misogynistic rag. Of course how many people actually read it is now becoming pretty clear, yet it was a question I found myself asking strangers while I was working as an intern at FHM in the summer of 2011, on a project meant to help rebrand the lads’ mag.

The magazine was stuck in a funk after its 90s heyday and struggling to connect with millennials. Not as classy or as cool as GQ or Esquire, as useful as Men’s Health or as plain smutty as Zoo or Nuts, FHM had lost its way. With declining sales only rivalled by a faster dropping street cred, they had hired two new editors to lead it onto a more fruitful path.