How To Pitch: Men's Health

Circulation: 1.9 million
Frequency: 10 times a year
Special Issues: MH puts out double issues in the most vanity-driven times of the year: January/February ("The New Year, New You Issue") and July/August ("Your Perfect Summer Issue"). The March and September issues house the annual style guides, June is the "Eat Like a Man" food issue, and technology is the focus for December, just in time for holiday gift-buying.

Background: In the beginning, before Maxim and FHM, before scantily clad starlets and beer-jock humor ruled the newsstand, there was Men's Health. Launched in 1988 as a one-shot newsstand spin-off of Prevention, the mag assumed an informative but informal tone that struck a nerve with readers. "It changed the landscape of men's magazines," says former executive editor Jeff Csatari. "Before us, nobody thought men would read a service magazine." Now, the average Men's Health reader is somewhere between 20 and 35, affluent, educated, and looking for tips to help him organize his life, as well as keep him spry, sexy, and in shape.

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The How to Pitch series is worth its weight in gold. In just the first month I'd already benefited enough to consider the cost of joining well worth it. -- Gaen Murphree