Sex, sports, beer, gadgets, clothes and fashion. These are the six words plastered on the top of every Maxim magazine. With more than 10 million readers who see each monthly issue and even more visiting its Web site, Maxim and other titles like it are changing the face of men’s magazines. College-aged men stock back-issues and proudly display current copies, leaving traditional mens magazines such as Playboy and GQ in the dust. “Tastes and times have changed,” says Tom Beell, professor of journalism and mass communication. “This magazine has been able to slide in.”The sexy British-born magazine made its maiden voyage to the United States in April 1997. The unique style and humorous writing of the magazine helped it pass Rolling Stone and Men’s Health in readership numbers by December 1999. “Maxim fits the college atmosphere more than Playboy does,” says Kolby Rosengreen, a junior in marketing and subscriber to both Maxim and Playboy.Newsstand buyers and subscribers purchased more than two million copies of Maxim each month and continues as the fastest growing magazine in America.Maxim runs circles around the nearest men’s magazine competitors with single copy newsstand sales, totaling more than Esquire, GQ, Men’s Journal, Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated combined. This gives Maxim the bragging rights of being the largest general interest men’s magazine in America.The success of Maxim also inspired Dennis Publishing, which publishes Maxim, to start its brother-magazine, Stuff. The new magazine is following in its older brother’s footsteps, quickly gaining readership and popularity. Currently, Stuff is running head-to-head with Details magazine.The magazine has done its market research and tapped into a social demand, Beell says. With sexy women, trendy information and humor, the company aims to sell to 18- to 44-year-old men, with 66 percent of the sales going to men between 18- and 34-years-old. The majority of its readers are single and a whopping 79 percent are in college or have already graduated. “Young men may be thinking of Playboy as old,” Beell says. “[Maxim] is new and current.”Between the pages of advertisements with striking women drinking imported alcohol or standing near foreign cars, Maxim speaks to its readers in a different tone than Playboy does. Maxim writers often put themselves at the same level as the reader and give them advice they can relate to. In other words, if Maxim were a person, he would be a witty, informative, politically incorrect roommate that everyone wants to know. Playboy, on the other hand, would be the rich neighbor with a model girlfriend wearing Gucci suits, smoking imported stogies.According to Rosengreen, Playboy is recommending clothing in the $1,000 range while Maxim focuses on fashion recommendations that are almost always under $100 — a prime example of how Maxim is more on a college man’s level.Another defining difference is that Maxim passes the mother-test, meaning that it can be read in front of a mother, while Playboy never had a chance to pass.”I am still not convinced that Maxim is that different from Playboy,” Beell explains. “But it has not been branded like Playboy and may be benefiting from not being labeled as pornographic.””Maxim I don’t consider pornography,” Rosengreen adds. “It’s just the same stuff as Cosmo.”Associate English professor Fern Kupfer teaches a course in writing for popular magazines. She compares the magazine content to women’s magazine Cosmo because it offers tips on relationships and has pictures of beautiful, scantily dressed — or undressed — women, as Cosmo does.”Today’s men want to make relationships work,” Kupfer says. “Well, they also want to get laid, but they want endearing relationships.” Rosengreen is thankful to the magazine for their tips and hints on life’s secrets, such as how to get women.”A lot of the magazine is devoted to stupid things that guys do to get girls.” Rosengreen says. “It’s helping me right now, every day, with every girl I see.”Men can get information to help them with relationships from Maxim without appearing “sissy” because it is packaged in a masculine way, Kupfer says. “Men are talking more about themselves and their place in the world,” she explains. “Men are changing,”Whether men are changing into more emotional beings or just following their hormones, Maxim has found an equation that works to get men to buy, read and love their magazine, and the trend is showing no signs of dying out. At least as long as men are interested in sex, sports, beer, gadgets, clothes and fashion, there is room for the new breed of mens magazines.