Nude Women One Issue in New Men’s Magazine : Premiere: Publisher Robert Scott of Costa Mesa believes other males will enjoy the anti-feminist views and erotic photos in Gentlemen’s Choice.

A national men’s issues magazine featuring photos of naked women is set to publish its premier issue later this month.

Gentlemen’s Choice in Costa Mesa is the product of publisher Robert Scott’s view of the world, he said, and he believes other middle-class American men will agree with him.

In Scott’s view, feminists are using the courts to curb men’s rights.

“It’s really hard now, between the workplace and personal life. You say hello to a woman, and she can call it harassment,” said Scott, 35. “How far is it going to go before we step in and say, ‘We need true equality here’? If you’re female today, your word is god.”

And he said he believes a way to show appreciation for women, among other things, is to publish photos of them in the nude.

“We don’t refer to the models as pets or playmates, they’re always ladies,” he said. “We’re not a 900-sex-line type of publication.”

The first issue of Gentlemen’s Choice includes a main story about the acceptance of male-bashing in popular culture. Scott says that publishing such issues-oriented stories is his goal.

Why such a story is presented along with erotic stories and photos of naked women is “a guy thing,” Scott said, adding that women “wouldn’t understand.”

Many of the models appearing in the 64-page premiere issue are from Orange County, he said.

Scott, who is married and has a young daughter and son, has invested his savings in the venture, which, with outside investments, provided a $150,000 start-up budget. Gentlemen’s Choice will use a direct-sales force for distribution; it will not be sold on newsstands.

The magazine retails for $5.95--the same price that Playboy commands on newsstands--or $35.70 for 14 issues a year. Annual subscriptions of the monthly magazine will include two special issues each year.

Scott’s plan is to authorize as many as 7,000 distributors who can then hire their own sales forces. Based on the number of anticipated sales, a distributor could earn more than $50,000, Scott said. Salespeople themselves would make $10 on each subscription.

The salespeople could solicit over the phone or visit delis and construction sites, “everywhere where there are men,” Scott said.

The distribution idea differs from multilevel marketing plans because there is a cap on the number of distributorships, and no one would be left at the bottom level without potential customers, said Scott, who anticipates 500,000 subscribers in the first year.

“Over 500 new magazines are started each year, and over half are sex magazines,” said Donald Kummerfeld, president of Magazine Publishers of America in New York. Most of those new men’s magazines don’t make it beyond the first year, Kummerfeld said. Playboy is the only men’s magazine that is an association member.

While magazines in general are regaining the attention of advertisers since March of this year, Kummerfeld said, adult magazines are having trouble fighting the competition from videos. Playboy’s circulation is 3.4 million today, said Jim Spanfeller, associate publisher, compared to 5.6 million in the late 1970s.

Scott has not ruled out eventually producing videos in addition to a magazine, and even plans to produce audiotapes to accompany each centerfold, with featured models talking about their lives and ambitions.