Using sex and models like liquid rocket fuel, Maxim appeared in 1997 and today, has boosted its circulation to approximately 1.3 million. Maxim's results are phenomenal. This UK-inspired magazine is the only title which flies off the nation's newsstands and out of the college bookstores as fast as it is put up.

The success of Maxim was best described by Dennis Publishing president Steve Colin in an October 1999 issue of Advertising Age: "The consumer spends four seconds making a decision It's all about the LCD. No, not the liquid crystal display on the wristwatches popular in the '80s. I'm referring to the lowest common denominator, as in a magazine content scheme that works. It's not about uppity magazine content, but then again, a magazine like Maxim isn't exactly looking to enrich its readers in literary greatness and social understanding like The New Yorker.

While a magazine like Men's Health, also in this list of the top 15 launches, received critical acclaim and circulation advances by following the old Chinese proverb that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, Maxim opted for the space shuttle approach.

The success of Maxim was best described by Dennis Publishing president Steve Colin in an October 1999 issue of Advertising Age: "The consumer spends four seconds making a decision. And we always have a girl on the cover, 'cause guess what? Guys like women. That's a flipping revelation."

Even with the change of guard in the editorial offices, especially with the high-profile loss of editor Mark Golin to Details magazine, Maxim is still the "universal soldier" in terms of single copy sales and subscriptions. Maxim, with its choppy, bathroom-style info-articles and sexy alphabetical lists, is prerequisite reading material for Male Life 101.

To sum up Maxim's success, let me just say that there's finally a Cosmo for men that's not called Playboy.