Getting in Gear: New Magazine Targets Males

A new pop culture magazine aimed at young males is set to compete with the likes of Rolling Stone and Details when it hits newsstands next year, its publisher said Thursday.

Bob Guccione Jr., who co-founded Spin magazine in 1985 and sold it last month, told Reuters he is now working on a magazine called Gear, which he envisages will be the first step in a diversified publishing empire. The first two issues of Gear, beginning September 1998, will be quarterly, and then it will become a monthly. Initial circulation will be 200,000.

The namesake son of the founder of Penthouse magazine is working with Boston-based investment bank Fechtor, Detwiler to raise about $10 million in start-up capital, although he will chip in for a majority stake. Spin was sold to the owners of Vibe magazine for $42 million, and Guccione’s share was $16.5 million. Additionally, the bank will help him scout for acquisitions.

Gear will be targeted at 18- to 30-year-old males and will cover pop culture, fashion and investigative reporting. But “this current trend to presume that all men are interested in flattening their stomachs” is one he will gladly leave to his competitors.

“Young men are very romantic, very idealistic and very escapist,” said Guccione, who is 41. “They really want a magazine they can read that is hip, exciting, very of-the-moment, has a great sense of humor, is substantial and courageous.”

While there will be items about sexual politics and related issues, he distanced Gear from Details, which has a strong accent in this “service feature” area. Nor will it be as music-oriented as Rolling Stone, which is owned by publisher Jann Wenner, or Spin.

Gear’s covers will capture people “who are beginning to take off in their careers,” he said.