It used to be a standard joke that when anyone referred to something that had appeared in Playboy magazine, they would quickly add that they read the magazine just for the articles. This was actually plausible because the magazine did publish many serious pieces, and was known especially for its interviews with prominent people including the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Fidel Castro.
Well, that joke will no longer be possible because the company has announced that they will no longer publish photographs of naked women.
Playboy magazine will stop publishing pictures of fully nude women because the ubiquity of internet pornography has made such images “passé”, the company’s chief executive has revealed.
In an interview with the New York Times, CEO Scott Flanders said founder Hugh Hefner, 89, had agreed with a proposal to stop publishing images of naked women from March 2016.
The redesigned Playboy, 62 years after it was launched by Hefner, will still feature a Playmate of the Month and provocative pictures of women, but they will be rated PG-13 (a rating that cautions that material may be inappropriate for children under 13).
Flanders told the NYT: “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture.”
So, guys, in future you won’t have to hide the magazines under the mattress. If you renew your subscription, that is.
That would make me more likely to subscribe again after what must be 15 or more years, if it means they’re not competing with the more sophomoric magazines like FHM and Maxim. They used to also publish a ton of literary fiction and serious investigative journalism, and the pictorials were much more soft-core compared to the competitors at the time.
Since Playboy is apparently keeping its motto, Entertainment for Men, I have a hard time imagining what it will be like; Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition but with an occasional interview of Neil Degrasse Tyson? If, on the other hand, they are actually serious about doing substantive interviews, don’t they think women would like that too?
Now if they changed the motto to Entertainment for People with Brains, I’d be interested, but that’s about as likely as Donald Trump saying something that wasn’t misogynistic, or racist, or stupid, or all three.
I just read it for the Gahan Wilson cartoons.
They know they can’t compete in the porn market, so what else can they do except pretend that “we only write Playboy for the articles”?
Cool.
Maybe this is an opprtunity for Playboy Enterprises to prove it writes serious journalism. Playboy is still an independently owned magazine, not part of nor answerable to Condé Nast nor any other magazine conglomerate. Wouldn’t it be great to see the magazine team up with The Intercept and other indepedent and reputable media?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy_Enterprises
Playboy is a piece of garbage magazine. As unseal, the models in it look like they just came home from Wal-Mart. They don’t put on makeup, comb their hair and can’t even dress themselves. Quit frankly, they’re unattractive pigs. If Playboy did try to compete, they wouldn’t have a problem selling their magazine… the problem is they’re not trying.
Yea, I wan’t to read playboy for it’s pointless, pretentious articles and interviews with Ellen and Rosie O’Donnell. And I just LOVE 150 pages of ads too (in a magazine that you PAID to look at).
People love to blame “the internet” for everything. Try blaming “bad decisions” instead.
Pick up a nudie mag from the ’80s -- early ’90s (not Playboy because they’ve pretty much always sucked). Most of the models in it are beautiful. Their hair is combed. They had someone do their nails & makeup and they’re wearing seductive outfits, lingerie, etc. They’re often in playful poses and EKK! even SMILING at times!
A junkie who hasn’t bathed in a week, lying on a towel in flip-flops, isn’t exactly my idea of “sexy”. Maybe it’s yours though… you can keep it.
Playboy magazine for the most part always had great articles and would often stand up for men’s rights in a world of politically correct women’s magazines that were written by male hating ultraliberal boneheads. The articles in women’s magazines were just like their writers, dull, boring and predictably stupid. Blaming men for just about everything wrong in the world was the bottom line along with articles on dieting and cake recipes. The articles required no dept of thought or imagination and after you read one you walked away no more informed or moved in anyway. In other words a waist of time and having read only a few paragraphs you could accurately predict the outcome. Playboy is different and not an easy read but you would often get a point of view that would challenge the prevailing wisdom and make you think without the bias provided by the PC media. The easy road is not always the correct one and if an article that is well written and thought provoking provides you with some subtle view that advances your overall understanding of a subject then it’s worth reading. On the other hand if you just want mindless garbage then you can pick up your magazine at the checkout counter of your local supermarket.