J Am Coll Radiol. 2016 Mar;13(3):351-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jacr.2015.08.009. Epub 2015 Oct 17.
Phillips B1, Fishman EK1, Horton KM1, Raman SP2.
“Men will never buy a health and fitness magazine. All they care about is beer and women.”
So began the first meeting within Rodale’s corporate headquarters to discuss a new idea: a health magazine targeting men. The year was 1985, and the company was already known as a leading source of health and fitness information, largely thanks to Prevention magazine, which had a circulation of more than three million. Prevention’s audience was, however, composed mostly of women, and Mark Bricklin, the editor-in-chief, saw an untapped opportunity with men. It wasn’t an easy sell, but Bricklin convinced the company’s senior leadership to let him test out one issue of a magazine titled Prevention’s Guide to Men’s Health, which hit newsstands in the summer of 1986.