Is the web killing men’s magazines?

Advertisers of products that would traditionally grace the pages of certain magazines such as audio equipment and alcoholic beverages are shifting their ad spend online, AdAge.com reports.

Magazines such as Rolling Stone, Maxim and Playboy that target a primarily male audience are reportedly losing advertisers to websites that are able to provide more interactive marketing options.

Stereo maker JVC, for example, reportedly pulled out of titles such as Playboy and Forbes this year to put more resources into advertising campaigns, such as a product-related music video run on a website targeting men called Heavy.

Another business, liquor maker Southern Comfort, says it will soon start advertising on Heavy after recently pulling out of ad deals with Rolling Stone and Maxim.

“Every year, those magazines that our core reads are shrinking. Magazines are not the way young males are being entertained anymore… so I decided to get away from those more-traditional media angles and focus more on viral through partners like Heavy,” JVC Mobile Entertainment general manager-marketing Chad Vogelsong says.

The phenomenon may help to explain why the number of ad pages bought by advertisers in print magazines in 2008 to date is down 5.5% on the equivalent period in 2007. By contrast, in the first quarter of 2008 magazine websites lifted unique monthly visitors by 11.9% on 2007 levels to 70.7 million.

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