Playboy will no longer feature nude women in its print edition
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Playboy will no longer feature nude women in its print edition
Bryan Logan 3h 7,434 1
Playboy
Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images for Playboy
Times have changed at Playboy.
Starting next year, the publication long known for showcasing the female physique, will no longer feature models in the nude, according to a report in The New York Times.
The decision apparently rose from a meeting with Playboy editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner and an editor at the magazine, amid discussions about a forthcoming update.
The Times' Ravi Somaiya writes that now that Playboy has effectively accomplished its founding goal of "normalizing" the female body by introducing women to the world in their au naturel state, the magazine's mission has been accomplished.
Keep in mind, in the days before Playboy landed on magazine racks (in the 1950s) female nudity was taboo.
Playboy CEO Scott Flanders is quoted in The Times: "That battle has been fought and won ... you're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free."
Flanders is saying that, essentially, the internet has made the thrill of eyeballing naked women "passé," and that Playboy can no longer let that be its primary commodity.
Proof of that can be found in a report by the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), The Times notes, which says Playboy's 5.6 million circulation in 1975 has taken a staggering fall to just 800,000.
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33 comments
Maybe this story was meant to be published on April 1.
“If you’re a man between the ages of 18 and 80, Playboy is meant for you,” he said in his first editor’s letter. “We enjoy mixing up cocktails and an hors d’oeuvre or two, putting a little mood music on the phonograph, and inviting in a female acquaintance for a quiet discussion on Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex ...”
We had an oral debate of what's good vs bad.
The world has passed him by, why print it at all?
I think this is a move so they can now sell in places that normally didn't allow such magazines sold. So now, playboy will be on the shelf next to maxim, complex, GQ, etc.
I can't imagine them turning a profit with this business model. Why not just stop printing the magazine and focus on the other aspects of the business. Post the articles online, keep selling as much merchandise as possible with the playboy logo and maybe look at reopening the Playboy Clubs as full on strip clubs. As we PLs know, while the internet can replace looking at naked women in magazines, it can't replace the intimate contact that you get at the club.
I was also surprised to hear they took all nudity off their web site.
I hope they still have nude playmates on tv.
I doubt the playboy web site will be considered work appropriate where I work in my lifetime if that's what they hoped for.
In this economy, younger men do not need a magazine reminding them that they cannot afford the overpriced snazzy gadgets, clothes and exotic cars featured in Playboy, nor do they have to rely on the publication to see hot, naked women. SCs, LDs, escorts and online hook-ups have made access to hot women a lot easier than 50 years ago, even if it's largely an illusion.
Playboy is "cleaning up" hoping to get back on the regular magazine racks in bookstores, Seven-Elevens and shopping malls, leaving the ghetto of "adult interest" sections in general interest stores. The magazine used to pay top dollar to women who posed nude. Now, these models and would-be actresses have many options for their services and, because of declining readership and loss of advertisers, Hef cannot afford to pay the big money. Getting rid of nudes and relying on "glamour" poses is a desperate plan to reduce costs for models and stem the decline. It just won't work, because no one will buy or subscribe to a PG-13 version of Maxim.
Once a business cuts back on its main product--here the nude centerfold--in order to save costs and survive, it hastens its decline. GM dumped Oldsmobile and Pontiac before filing for Chapter 11. All of the major airlines cut customer services and added fees--no meals, baggage charges, rebooking flights, seats with leg room and, a flirtation with charging for using the lavatory--before filing for bankruptcy protection. Playboy has only so many places to cut costs during this decline. Dropping nude photographs, reducing the publication schedule and replacing great writing with recycled travel articles, will not save it. (Gore Vidal, William F. Buckley, Arthur C. Clarke and Ian Fleming used to publish in Playboy. More than one James Bond novel was serialized in Playboy before being published and, later, converted to a hit movie.)
Sad to see the decline. Sadder to see it fade away.
There was a stretch of years where I bought subscriptions through PCH in the hopes that jolly Ed would come knocking on my door with the multimillion dollar check in hand. After his death, I just lost interest in it. Yes, I got PB mainly for the pictures, but also for interviews. Naked centerfolds and interviews with the likes of Trump, Putin, Jimmy Carter, etc. was a combination that was hard to beat.
@Super Dude- I think you might be right about Playboy going Chapter 11. When you start messing with the main reason people buy your magazine, things go downhill from there. Cutting costs can only take you so far. Holding the opposing team to fewer points isn't going to help if you don't score some points yourself. To paraphrase one airline executive: "Cut enough cheese from a pizza, nobody will want to buy it."