The success of magazines, such as Loaded and FHM, which target young men with a menu of sex, sport, gadgets and grooming tips, has been one of the publishing phenomenons of the 1990s.

A nude Gail Porter on the Houses of Parliament helped FHM's sales

But first-half figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation suggest the "lad mag" boom may be fading.

Emap-owned FHM saw monthly sales for the first six months of 1999 fall by 9.6% to an average of 701,089.

Loaded - the magazine credited with starting the genre - dropped 15.8% to 384,351.

The men's lifestyle sector overall was flat, with a rise of just 0.2%.

However, the men's magazine publishers denied they were seeing the beginning of a serious slump.

Emap said last month's FHM - promoted by a naked image of presenter Gail Porter projected onto the Houses of Parliament - broke all sales records.

Posh and Becks

One analysts said FHM's sales had reached unsustainably high levels in 1998.

He said: "Sales have gone in a straight line, and they couldn't go on for ever."

The strongest performers were computing and women's beauty magazines.

Computer titles lifted an average 22%, with the largest increases at Practical Internet (72.6%) and Essential Playstation (47.2%)

The women's beauty sector rose 80.4%, helped by new titles such as Shine and Healthy.

Northern and Shell's celebrity magazine OK!, which recently scooped the pictures of England footballer David Beckham's wedding to Spice Girl Victoria Adams, saw a 92.9% year-on year rise in sales.

Its figures for the second half may be even better, as the July wedding feature will not register until the next six-month report.

Rival Hello fell 2.5%.

Football magazines also lost sales on last year, when the World Cup boosted circulation.

Even Manchester United's treble-winning success failed to boost the sector, with Manchester United Magazine and Glory Glory Man United losing a quarter and a third of sales respectively.