Paul Raymond Publications releases a number of magazines similar to Escort, including Club International, Mayfair, Men Only, Men's World, and Razzle. The origin of these titles lies in businessman Paul Raymond's expansion from strip club management into magazine publishing in the 1960s.
A monthly pin-up magazine with the title Escort was published between 1958 and 1971. Ten years later Paul Raymond began publishing a top-shelf magazine with the revived title. By 2012, Escort was in its 32nd year, or volume.
Escort is generally available in most newsagents, although some larger retailers require a modesty bag in order to protect minors from seeing partial nudity on display on the cover. Escort also has a digital identity on the official Paul Raymond website, where the hardcore imagery not found in the print version is also shown. From 2013, the magazine was also available in digital format exclusively on the Paul Raymond digital newsstand for a few years.
The magazine's content is a combination of photographs and text, with the photographs almost entirely being those of partially or completely nude women.
Escort specialises in pictures of amateur (i.e. non-professional) models, some of which are sent to the magazine by readers – these are described as "readers' wives". It often features photo-shoots taken in an "ordinary" location like a pub, or outdoors at a place familiar to British readers. In 2013 the magazine was described by Pierre Perrone, a former magazine editor for Paul Raymond Publications, as "downmarket".
Up to and including Volume 15 (1995), Escort had a distinctive 'cut-out' cover, which folded out into a poster; this 'cut-out' design allowed a few smaller pictures on the contents page to be visible, thus giving a preview of other women posing in the magazine; one of these smaller pictures was usually that from the magazine's regular 'Girls of ...' feature showing women posing at various locations of that issue's chosen town.