New reading for China's lads

LADS' magazine Maxim plans to begin selling a Chinese version next month, although the publisher says it will be 'a little less racy' than its British and US stablemates.

'Guys are very similar worldwide,' said Kerin O'Connor, international licensing director for Dennis Publishing, the magazine's publisher. 'They have the same kind of aspirations for the way they want to live their lives, and they have the same kind of interests.'

The two new local-language versions in mainland China and Hong Kong will be published in a joint venture with the South China Morning Post and hit the streets on 20 April.

They are looking for a combined circulation of 180,000 and will compete with Hearst Magazines' Esquire, published in China since 1999 and selling 326,000.