The move follows a 41.4% year-on-year drop in Maxim's circulation in the second half of 2008 to 45,951 copies.
Maxim owner Dennis Publishing has started a consultation period for all 12 editorial and commercial staff who work on the brand, including those involving in producing its digital content. Dennis claims it will bolster its online editorial team to develop more content for the website.
James Tye, CEO, Dennis Publishing said: "The Maxim brand remains the best-selling men’s lifestyle magazine in the world, but Dennis Publishing must move with the times and recognize that the future of the brand in the UK is online.
"We are extremely proud of what Maxim UK has achieved: as a print magazine, it was at the forefront of the UK lifestyle market and as a website it will continue to inform and entertain thousands of readers every day."
Current subscribers to the print edition will be given the option of subscribing to the US edition of Maxim or to one of Dennis's other men's lifestyle titles.
The website.currently has 500,000 unique users per month and 260,000 subscribers to its weekly email.
The online plans for Maxim will not involve any change to its current policy of giving away content for free, according to a spokeswoman.
Dennis's agreement with Alpha Media, from which it has licensed the rights to publish Maxim UK since it sold Alpha the Maxim brand in 2007, has now changed.
It now holds digital-only rights to publish the brand in the UK and has become the sole importer of the US edition of Maxim to the UK.
, making the brand online-only and at the same time merging the Maxim US print and digital editorial teams.
In the UK the closure of Maxim's print edition follows Bauer Media axing Arena magazine last month.
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