Men's Fitness Magazines Go Head-To-Head And Cover-To-Cover

The cover of the April issue of Men's Health features a well-built man against a white background with the title of the magazine above him in red. The cover of Men's Fitness also features a muscled guy in a similar pose against a white background underneath a red title. The layout of the contents, editor's page, and contributors' page is also very similar to Men's Health, and the titles of the Men's Fitness sections in the magazine, "Ask Us" and "Tell Us," mimic Men's Health sections "Ask Men's Health" and "Tell Men's Health."

A press release issued by Rodale stated that "In Rodale's opinion, Men's Health's continued and unparalleled success has clearly inspired American Media to create a copycat version -- one that is obviously intended to confuse consumers."

After learning about the impending lawsuit, a spokesperson for American Media, Stuart Zakim, said that "the redesign changes that have been made resonated amazingly well with two primary groups, our readers and advertisers." American Media reported that its April issue sold more copies than any other issue in recent years. Last year, the advertising pages for Men's Fitness declined by 10% with revenue growth up 2%, while advertising pages at Men's Health increased 22% with ad revenue up 29%. Men's Fitness has a readership of approximately 600,000, while Men's Health has 1.7 million readers.

Significance: With competition for readership and advertising pages fierce, magazines are understandably tempted to borrow ideas from their successful counterparts. This strategy should be pursued very carefully by the publishing industry and other media, as there is a fine legal distinction between incorporating the ideas of others and infringing valuable intellectual property rights.