The Art of Manliness has posted a great review of the major magazines aimed at men, and tells us which are good and which are not worth the time (unless you're looking for some soft-core porn).
The Best and Worst Magazines for Men
January 6, 2009One of the reasons I started the Art of Manliness website was because of the dearth of quality men’s magazines out there. None of them really took the idea of manliness and what it meant to be a man seriously, and they were filled with the same, tired articles on how to bed the ladies and attain six pack abs.
My hope is that AoM has filled a niche in talking about aspects of manliness and a man’s life that don’t get covered elsewhere. But of course, practically speaking, there’s still a need for magazines. Magazines help pass the time at the airport and provide a little extra relaxation when you’re sitting upon the porcelain throne. And it’s definitely nice to get something fun in the mailbox every month. Therefore, AoM set out to discover which men’s magazines were the best. We read through 2 months of issues from a variety of men’s publications. (Note: while magazines like Popular Mechanics, Sports Illustrated, and Field and Stream have a predominantly male readership, we concentrated on magazines that were designed and targeted as general men’s interest publications).
We spent many hours reading and note taking so that you don’t have to. We examined who the magazines seemed to be marketing themselves towards, what kind of stories they published, and the quality of those stories. We then noted the pros and cons of each. While some magazines seem quite hefty, everyone knows that a lot of that bulk consists of advertisements. So we carefully tallied the page to ad ratio. Also, one of our pet peeves about men’s magazines is that they often mar the reading experience by placing a really tasteless ad in the back for some sex-related product. Whether or not a magazine is willing to print such scurrility is a good mark of its classiness, so we took note of which ones did and didn’t. Another one of our beefs with men’s magazines is that they sell a lifestyle few men can afford. Most men shop at places like Old Navy and don’t have the dough for $6,000 suits. So we took note of what kinds of products the magazines suggested to readers. Finally, we bestowed upon the magazine a certified Art of Manliness quality ranking. Now for our reviews . . . .
Of the magazines they look at, I have seen most. We get them at the gym for people to read while doing cardio [NOTE: if you can read while doing cardio, you aren't working hard enough].
Best Life, Men's Vogue, Men's Journal, Esquire, and sometimes Men's Health are the only ones I look at much. Of those, Esquire and Men's Vogue seem to have the best articles. I'm not looking to any of these magazines for "masculinity" advice or workout information, so they have to have good articles. My two cents.
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