Estimates from agency press buyers expect the figures will show FHM's average circulation for July-December 2006 has fallen as much as 20% below the 500,585 copies it sold in the same period in 2005.
Brown was promoted to editor from features editor in August 2004, succeeding David Davies who became managing director of women's weekly, and fellow Emap title, Grazia.
He oversaw the magazine's last relaunch in August, when it promised to narrow its focus from the broad 18-34 audience to a 27-year old reader, branded a "tempered hedonist" by Emap.
FHM's supremacy in the men's market peaked in 1999 when it sold a record 775,000 copies.
Although it remains the most successful men's monthly, it has been undermined by the proliferation of other media targeting men.
The arrival of stablemate Zoo and IPC's Nuts at the start of 2004 created a new weekly men's magazine market, with Dennis' Monkey adding the twist of a digital-only weekly with its arrival late last year.
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