Men Only Magazine - ISSN 0025-9217

Men Only magazine was the first top shelf title for Paul Raymond that had longevity. The title was purchased from its previous owners who had the magazine stuck in the Spick And Span segment of the adult market.

The magazines secondary title was Escort which was a defunct title not published for 10 years but of course would surface again at the start of the 80s as a magazine in its own right.

Men Only came into its own at volume 50 which was 1985 when the cover and inside format would remain virtually unchanged well into the late 90s.

It was at this time that two of Men Only’s greatest photographers came into play, namely Joanie Allum and Ralph Medland. Their photo sets would propel Men Only into one of the biggest selling UK titles of all time.

Men Only was the only UK magazine to be a top 5 seller in the USA were it went under the name of Club. Paul Raymond couldn’t use the Men Only title in America as it was already owned by a different company.

Club first went on sale in the USA in 1975, four years behind the UK edition. It was controlled under license by Peter Godfrey who also took a shine to Joanie Allum’s photographic style and she became the most prolific photographer on both sides of the Atlantic.

The American edition was much stronger than its UK sister and as such it was never legitimately imported by Paul Raymond as it would have affected the sales of Men Only.

Men Only published satellite titles under the title banner the best of which was the yearly Bumper Sex edition. Bumper sex was first published in 1985 and contained sets from Men Only as well as Escort.

In 2007 Paul Raymond publishing fought an employment tribunal case against a sacked editor of Men Only, Pierre Perrone. Perrone had initially been employed by Raymond to edit the French version of Club Pour Homme, which had a format similar to Men’s World although much stronger. He was brought in to Jazz up the Men Only circulation but got fired for artistic differences.

Paul Raymond Publications finally sold off the magazine business around 2009 and being as the Gold Brothers and David Sullivan had sold their magazine titles for £1, this left only Galaxy as one of the old school publishers still in the top shelf market.