In Naughty News: Gay skin mags “Mandate” and “Inches” to make comeback.

Hey Kids! You remember “magazines”, right? Those weekly, bi-weekly or monthly thin books with lots of pictures that you bought at your local “Kum & Go” or “newsstand”? (Remember THOSE?!?!?) You might also remember that a couple of years ago, the majority of the big, gay male, adult titles bit the dust when the Mavety Media Services shut down such staples of the genre as Mandate, Playguy, Inches, Black Inches, Latin Inches and Some Young Straight Kid from the Ukraine Who Needs the Money Inches. (Personally, I preferred Honcho and Torso…)Not long after that, most of the other skin rags followed as well; even the classier Advocate Men and Unzipped quietly faded away in a sea of red ink, doomed by a new generation content with polishing their knobs while hunched over a laptop.

That’s all changed with the news last week that Mavety was resurrecting Mandate, just in time for its 36th anniversary; the rebirthed mag should hit newsstands next week. The group also announced that Inches will also return, in March. The new Mandate will include photo sets from Bel Ami (young, gay for pay Eastern European twinks) and Jet Set (slightly older, American, less likely to be gay for pay, twinks) among others. Boy Culture blog’s Matthew Rettenmund originally broke these stories; the blogger has connections at Mavety where he used to be an editor.

What do you think? Is anyone going to buy these magazines? Apparently, there must have been enough of an outcry for their return for Mavety to resume publication…they wouldn’t go into this without doing some market research. The death knell for print publications is ongoing so it’s surprising that these mags are returning, but maybe there is enough interest for a fringe market of fans to make it profitable, like music fans addicted to vinyl. But, it’s hard to believe that there are enough “hard copy” readers out there, to make this work. I’m guessing the assumption is, most of these readers must be older and resistant to the digital age, but even most “seniors” are on the web and have their own Facebook pages. As a Gen X’er caught between the Boomers and the Gen Y generation, I have to admit I have a BIG tub of vintage porn mags under my bed, but I also have to admit I haven’t pulled out that tub in a very long time. And, I have zero inclination to spend $6 or $7 for a hard copy magazine full of nekkid twinky types I can check out for free on the Net.

It’s also shocking to think that the guys who posed for Mandate the first year of its publication, are all in the pushing 60 neighborhood…