Former Maxim editor Dave Itzkoff reveals The (not so secret) Formula that congeals into every issue. It seems more time and effort is spent on the attention grabbing cover lines than the actual contents (maybe they should have hired Helen Gurley Brown’s husband who penned all of Cosmopolitan magazine’s cover lines when she was editor). To make Maxim sell, they pumped up the page turning teases and never really delivered much. And when they couldn’t get a recognizable woman for the cover they had to scramble to actually try something creative, to the derision of media critics. Well, at least it’s reassuring to know that a men’s magazine can be as content-free and formulaic as the average women’s magazine. (via misnomer)