No more nudes in Playboy magazine, centerfold's future at risk: report

[Cylnar]

by Barbara Goldberg, Reuters
Monday, October 12, 2015
http://news.yahoo.com/no-more-nudes-playboy-magazine-centerfolds-future-risk-025715622.html

Now readers of Playboy, the glossy men's magazine known for its nude fold-outs, can honestly say they are buying the magazine for its articles.

Playboy will no longer publish nude photographs of women, the New York Times reported on Monday in an article quoting Scott Flanders, the company's chief executive.

Founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner, 89, who in his trademark silk pajamas has embodied the Playboy lifestyle, agreed last month with a suggestion by top editor Cory Jones to stop publishing images of naked women, the Times said.

At a time when every teenage boy has an Internet connected phone and the web is rife with pornography, the magazine has opted to continue featuring women in provocative poses, just not completely nude, the Times said.

"You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free," Flanders was quoted as saying in the Times. "And so it's just passe at this juncture."

The magazine that featured Marilyn Monroe on its debut cover in 1953 is making the changes after circulation dropped from 5.6 million in 1975 to about 800,000 now, the Times said.

After its initial success, the magazine was attacked from the political right because of the nudity and from the left by feminists who said it reduced women to sex objects.

Some changes are still under debate, including whether there will continue to be a centerfold. Playboy magazine's sex columnist will be a woman, who writes enthusiastically about sex, Jones told the Times.

The magazine has always had intellectual appeal with top writers such as Kurt Vonnegut, Joyce Carol Oates, Vladimir Nabokov, James Baldwin and Alex Haley for men who liked to say they did not buy the magazine just for the pictures.

In-depth interviews with historic figures such as Fidel Castro, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and John Lennon also were a regular feature.

"Don't get me wrong," Mr. Jones said of the decision to eliminate nude pictures, "12-year-old me is very disappointed in current me. But it's the right thing to do."

Playboy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.



I had to check the calendar when I read this, to be sure I hadn't fallen through a time warp to April Fool's Day. Shit, if Playboy can give up *its* entire raison d'être, can we get EA to stop making shitty games and the Koch brothers to stop making money and subverting democracy then?

[Tessera]

The magazine that featured Marilyn Monroe on its debut cover in 1953 is making the changes after circulation dropped from 5.6 million in 1975 to about 800,000 now, the Times said.

Uh huh. And if they take out the naked Playmates, then their circulation will drop to about... zero. EVERYBODY buys Playboy for the hot naked babes... whether they admit it, or not.

I think Hef figures that at his age, he's going to be dead soon... so he may as well destroy his empire. The man has an IQ of over 150, so surely he knows that this decision will sink Playboy for good. It's also possible that his daughter Christie, who will be inheriting Playboy when Hef kicks the bucket, had something to do with this decision.

Ten years ago, I ran a web site devoted to "classic" (pre-1990) Playboy Playmates and we had several actual Playmates as regular contributing members (Helena Antonaccio, Charlotte Kemp, Sharry Konopski, Debi Johnson, and Christina Smith, and a few others such as Petra Verkaik and Ruth Guerri who popped in from time to time). I'd be interested in knowing what their take is on all of this. I think I'm going to give a couple of them a call and ask them, just for the hell of it.

[Gman]

Had a good laugh about this earlier today actually. Nude women is about the only thing anyone thinks of when you mention Playboy.

[Tessera]

Well, there's another issue here... and it's important:

Playboy Playmates are not just about naked women. It's not just about sex. Playmates are about BEAUTY. Insanely, impossibly beautiful women, posing in their natural state (nude). From the late 60's onward, Playboy Playmates have truly been representative of the most beautiful women in the world.  

Yes, we can click on a few internet links, and see all sorts of sex and nudity for free. But none of those women on the web... NONE of them... are anywhere near as perfect and beautiful as even an average Playboy Playmate. And the really outstanding Playmates simply have no equals anywhere.

I understand that Playboy has been in decline over the course of the past 20 years. But it isn't because of web porn... it's because of a decline in the quality of the Playmates that have been featured in the magazine. After suffering a stroke in the 90's, Hugh Hefner turned most of his duties over to his daughter Christy, back in 1990 or thereabouts. And ever since then, the quality of the Playmates has been steadily decreasing.

At the same time, they have been becoming increasingly "cookie-cutter." Which is exactly what I would expect when you place a WOMAN in charge of a MEN'S magazine. Christy Hefner has reduced Playmate selection to a formula... and that is NOT the way that her father did it, back when he was personally overseeing that aspect of the magazine and its presentation. Hugh Hefner selected women who had "that special something," back when he was running the show. But his daughter is biologically incapable of innately sensing what "that special something" is, because SHE IS NOT A MAN. And so, she has instead been resorting to a formulaic system of Playmate selection, which explains why most of the Playmates from the past 20 years look like clones of each other... right down to their saline implants (most of the Playmates from the past two decades have fake tits), their cute little tattoos, their silly belly button piercings, and so on. No more natural beauties... no more "girl next door" quality... nearly all of them simply look fake.

In my opinion, and in the opinion of several "classic" Playmates from the 70's and the 80's, it is all of the above which is primarily responsible for the huge decline in sales for Playboy. Modern Playmates are BORING... that's it, in a nutshell. It has little or nothing to do with the competition from the internet. The main reason why there is -any- competition from the internet, is because most modern Playmates aren't offering any competition... they're just as silly and boring and artificial and cookie-cutter as most of the nameless twats who do web porn.

If Hugh Hefner wants to save Playboy, then he doesn't need to stop featuring Playmates. That would be suicide for his magazine. What he needs to do is kick his daughter Christy out and put a man in charge of the show. Let's see a return to the all-natural, insanely beautiful and totally UNIQUE women who used to be featured in Playboy.

Christy has had her shot... and she blew it. Getting rid of the Playmates is not the answer -- getting rid of Christy Hefner is the answer.  

[perez007usa]

There goes the neighborhood. As always, something like this happens, then you know it means the end.

[Desklamp]

I think Hef figures that at his age, he's going to be dead soon... so he may as well destroy his empire. The man has an IQ of over 150, so surely he knows that this decision will sink Playboy for good. It's also possible that his daughter Christie, who will be inheriting Playboy when Hef kicks the bucket, had something to do with this decision.

So it's another case of an heir to an empire fucking it up.

[beetle]

I'm a bit late to the party, but Hef's 20-something year old son is running things now.

[beetle]

Oh, and the Playboy Mansion is up for sale with the stipulation that Hef gets to live there until he dies.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2016/01/11/hugh-hefners-200-million-playboy-mansion-is-americas-new-most-expensive-home-for-sale/#35f9da0226e9

[Tessera]

I'm a bit late to the party, but Hef's 20-something year old son is running things now.

Well, that's even weirder. His mother is Kimberly Conrad... and she was a Playmate Of The Year back in the late 80's. She was married to Hef for a few years.

So then, why would he be opposed to continuing to feature Playmates, when his own mother was a Playmate..?

Makes no sense at all to me. Playboy is going to crumble because of this.

[beetle]

At least I THINK his 20-something year old son is running things.

[beetle]

After further research I discovered that I am wrong! His 23 year old son is NOT running Playboy, but the mansion is still up for sale. I'll just go sit in a corner now.  

[Tessera]

Aye... it didn't make sense to me at all.

So far as I know, Hef turned over most of the control of Playboy to his eldest... his daughter Christie Hefner... about 25 years ago.

And she's been running Playboy into the ground ever since. You should never, EVER put a woman in charge of a men's magazine.

[beetle]

She's not the current CEO. Some other dude is.

[beetle]

Wikipedia says Christie Hefner stepped down as Chairman and CEO back on January 30, 2009.

On a related note, the owner of Hostess has bought the Playboy Mansion. Now he's gonna have to deal with Hef until he dies and will have to renovate the interior. As a couple of articles I've read that interviewed some Playmates says the interior looks like it's from the 80's with matching ratty 80's furniture and someone's yappy dog pissing on the curtains.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/06/06/playboy-mansion-sold-neighbor/85513642/

[Tessera]

Well, what can we say..? It's the end of an era, I guess.

I'll just add that during the course of my lifetime, I've seen thousands and thousands of women. We all have.

And truly... the most beautiful, sexually attractive women that I have EVER seen have all been Playboy Playmates.

Particularly the Playmates from the 1980's... the so-called "hardbody decade." Hottest looking chicks of all time.

[perez007usa]

Like I wrote before. it;s the end,

[caninelegion]

They announced a reversal of that policy some months ago.  Doesn't mean they won't have the formula girls again, though. 

[perez007usa]

Most of them are all "nip & tuck" if that is what you mean.