no more nude female pictures in Playboy (print)

[NewOrleans]

Not to worry: they will still objectify women online, though.  <)


Playboy will no longer feature nude women in its print edition

Bryan Logan


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.

According to AAM's magazine-circulation figures from 2014, the most popular magazine in circulation among the top 25 in the US was "AARP The Magazine."

AARP stands for the American Association of Retired Persons, an organization primarily focused on baby boomers. Its magazine had a total paid and verified circulation of 22.8 million as of 2014.

The second-most-circulated magazine is another AARP publication, boasting circulation of 22.2 million in the same year.

Perhaps most telling about the decline of the adult magazine is its slow disappearance from newspaper stands. The Times notes that many have been relegated to "specialist stores" instead.

Playboy's biggest foes now, according to The Times' Somaiya, are digital news outlets like the $2.5 billion juggernaut Vice Media, which could be eating Playboy's lunch at the moment, with an entire vertical dedicated to the genre that made Playboy famous.

[Nonny]

So... Now people really will be reading it for the articles?

[AAM2012]

Side note: I saw a recent pic of Hugh Hefner and man...he's looking really old lately!

[WanderingWinoZ]

yea, I can see this. When you can get nude pics of anybody everywhere online, what's so special about their printed naked photos???

So tragic- I remember growing up reading this...lol

[summer]

Oct 12, 2015 22:17:40 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

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.

[NewOrleans]

Oct 13, 2015 5:45:47 GMT -5 summer said:

Oct 12, 2015 22:17:40 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

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.

I mean, really.

If only there were classical art forms prior to Playboy that celebrated and showcased the female body.  This world was a humanities desert. We owe Playboy a good deal. 

[ECB]

Oct 12, 2015 23:00:24 GMT -5 AAM2012 said:

Side note: I saw a recent pic of Hugh Hefner and man...he's looking really old lately!

Well, he is 89!  I thought he was looking pretty old on that show he had going w/ Kendra and Holly.

[sushi]

Oct 13, 2015 7:24:02 GMT -5 @majorwife said:

Oct 12, 2015 23:09:49 GMT -5 Dig Ophelia said:

They really used to do some great interviews. lol 

I could see it no longer being printed, altogether, after Hef dies.  

While antiquing the other weekend, I found a huge collection of vintage playboys and was shocked at the content. I would be shocked if the nudes were 50% of the content. Maybe after the 60s and 70s they were but not back in the day.

H was just telling me he worked at a video store with about 50 years of playboy in the bathroom

Even as a teen boy he said most were not hot. That's pretty bad.

I've been to the sex museum in Amsterdam. Scintillating porn is older than playboy

[msmerymac]

Playboy has had some great journalism! Seriously.

[emisi]

Apparently 80% of the photographers from the 60s and 70s shopped at H's grandfather's camera store in Tucson. They did a lot of photoshoots in Tucson because the sun is SO BRIGHT you didn't need a lot of lighting, just reflectors.

I'd like to see it go back to being a really great platform for articles and stuff like it was in the 60s and 70s. I mean, it's not like nudity is titillating anymore (snerk.... tit).