Boyz (magazine)

Boyz is the most successful free, London-based magazine, targeted at gay men and distributed mainly through gay bars, nightclubs and saunas in the United Kingdom. Published weekly, it tends to focus on news about the gay scene and celebrities (generally pop music artists) popular with young scene-going gay men.

Boyz is relatively light on "serious" content, being quite tabloid in its outlook. A typical issue will include interviews with pop bands, actors or writers, a regular health page, an agony uncle page, music reviews and a rundown of recent and upcoming events on the gay scene, including a night-by-night list of events. In a break with the past, in October 2007, the magazine abandoned its more explicit content, however adverts for male escorts, contact ads and erotic phone lines continue. General advertising for club and pub nights etc. now provides the revenue for the production and distribution of the magazine, and may go some way to explain the often subjective nature of its coverage of the gay scene.

On 18 October 2007, Boyz was relaunched in a very similar form, with more focus on an edgier design, and with extra club photos. It seems that a new team has taken over the running of the magazine and a lot of the explicit content has been taken out. Instead, the magazine now has dedicated news page and additional sections on grooming, more health, partnership, hobbies and a larger gay scene coverage.

The news page, In The Know, has received particular attention since the relaunch having been the first to break a story of three young gay porn stars being infected with HIV on a British porn shoot. Boyz' news editor Karl Riley later appeared on the BBC's Newsnight to discuss the story.