smut rags

Did Regent’s Unzipped Media Just Close Porn Rags Men and Freshmen?

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Men and Freshmen are no longer, and about half of Unzipped Media’s staff was let go on Friday as the publisher shutters two-thirds of its porn roster, according to a source with knowledge of the company. (UPDATED. See below) The report is still unconfirmed (we’re waiting to hear back from Unzipped), but it would make sense.

The bastard child of Paul Colichman’s Regent Media, Unzipped is known best for having its flagship title feature a naked Beau Breedlove and make a cash offer to Levi Johnston that went nowhere. So maybe that’s what’s keeping Unzipped alive by itself. Men and Freshmen, meanwhile, are likely suffering the slump of most print magazines, but even more so because they’re porn rags, and we’ve already seen what’s happening to that category. Porn consumption is moving to the web, we don’t need to tell you that.

In the meantime, Colichman, the head of Regent/Here Media, is most heavily focused on his premiere media brands, including hereTV, Out and The Advocate, so an unwillingness to continue financing money-losing projects like these two magazines wouldn’t come as a surprise. What would be funny, however, is to see Regent close two porn magazines after trying so hard to not piss off porn advertisers — and just after hiring Rick Andreoli to head up Unzipped, where he’s been busy hosting parties for 18-year-olds. (You’ll recognize Andreoli from this CNN interview about Levi Johnston.)

If you know more, tell us.

UPDATE: Rather than respond to our own inquiries, Unzipped hands a press release to porn industry site Xbiz, which reports Men and Freshmen will become quarterlies, their websites revamped, and all current subscribers will be moved to Unzipped in December. “This isn’t a matter of the magazines not doing well,” says Unzipped publisher Dustin Tyner. “But if you look at the number of pages we currently put out per month, we’re producing more than Vanity Fair. So we are taking a long view of the market and adapting the properties in order to keep these brands alive for many years to come.”

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