In the ABCs for the six months ending June 2002, FHM, published by Emap, had a circulation of 580,738, compared with 570,719 for the previous period.
FHM still leads the men's magazine sector by a significant margin, selling 270,000 more copies than its closest rival, IPC's Loaded, which sold 309,041 copies for the period, up by 0.1%.
The big losers in the category were relative newcomer Front, down by 8.5% to 140,599; Bizarre, which dropped 7.8% to 97,036; and Conde-Nast's GQ, down by 7.6% to 116,380.
The mens' magazine sector appears to be in trouble across the board, with five titles recording double digit falls in circulation on a year-on-year basis.
Hardest hit of these was one-time men's style bible, Arena, which has seen its circulation for the year ending June 2002 tumble by 23.6% to 38,326 although the period fall is a much slighter 0.4%. The Face, the other magazine bought by Emap when it took over the independent publisher Wagadon, also fared badly, with year-on-year figures showing a 13.3% fall to 52,119 copies. Its six monthly fall was much more severe than stablemate Arena as it dropped 5.8% to June.
In fact, the only title making headway was Men's Fitness, which saw an 8.1% rise over the year to sell 50,056 copies -- still a long way behind rival fitness title Men's Health, which had the fifth biggest circulation overall, with a figure of 216,983.
The figures do not include James Brown's new bi-monthly men's title Jack, which launched in April and will appear in the next set of ABCs.
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