Playboy models no longer nude

Quote: AZDuffman

They expect the subscriber base to fall to 500K before it gets better.

The profit margin is probably significantly better on the magazine rack than the subscription.

But the main problem is that the magazine is 63 years old. Now all magazines update their content, I imagine every one of them has some growing pains as they transition from old to new subscribers. Playboy is changing what originally made them famous.

I watched a few minutes of the new Showtime series "Billions" on pay TV. I was thinking that it's no longer enough for a pay TV series to put in the obligatory nudity (just to show that it is cable), but now they have to show some deviant sex (just to show that it is cable). It gets tiresome. I have no interest in deviant sex.

So I can imagine that there are some older men who like to look at glamour nudes, and are not happy with the changes. The long term subscribers to Playboy still really liked photos of the airbrushed version of the girl next door.

The big question is can Playboy attract significantly more female subscribers.

Quote: Pacomartin

The profit margin is probably significantly better on the magazine rack than the subscription.

But the main problem is that the magazine is 63 years old. Now all magazines update their content, I imagine every one of them has some growing pains as they transition from old to new subscribers. Playboy is changing what originally made them famous.

I watched a few minutes of the new Showtime series "Billions" on pay TV. I was thinking that it's no longer enough for a pay TV series to put in the obligatory nudity (just to show that it is cable), but now they have to show some deviant sex (just to show that it is cable). It gets tiresome. I have no interest in deviant sex.

So I can imagine that there are some older men who like to look at glamour nudes, and are not happy with the changes. The long term subscribers to Playboy still really liked photos of the airbrushed version of the girl next door.

The big question is can Playboy attract significantly more female subscribers.

Not sure on the profit thing. You charge more but you have to give a piece to the store selling it, the distributor, and maybe some others down the line. I do know they like the subscribers because it is a locked-in reader base for advertisers, where the real money comes from.

Count me among the ones who would prefer the glamour thing. Playboy was always a place where a girl got discovered or rediscovered without posing for smut like Penthouse or Hustler. Those girls more likely only got discovered for porn.

Playboy may be where Cadillac was in 1980s. They know their old base will die off but what they need to convert to will drive them off. So you figure out a transition plan.

I don't see why they would need to attract female subscribers.

When I first subscribed to Playboy in 1980, it cost me $36/yr (a whopping $105 in 2016 dollars). When subscription ran out I think it was about $18-20 for 2014. I still get a dozen magazines these days; I just paid $16 for two years of Smithsonian (24 issues). Most expensive is $75/yr for Sports Car Market, a thick monthly report of all the car auctions results, worth every penny. If you watch Mecum and Barrett-Jackson, this magazine is right up your alley.

Quote: AZDuffman

I don't see why they would need to attract female subscribers.

Playboy subscription peaked in 1972, so they need subscribers period.

Playboy has been going after female readers since the late 1980's when Christie Hefner became CEO. They do merchandising aimed at women and celebrity pictorials, designed to resemble fashion shoots.

Playboy is not really racier than Cosmopolitan.

I haven't opened a magazine in 15 years,
why would I. They're all online now, or
enough of them are.

Quote: Pacomartin

The big question is can Playboy attract significantly more female subscribers.

Females are the big porn market. The soft core porn market is exploding particularly the 'women's empowerment' area wherein some hooker talks to one client ten times more than she would in reality talk to all her clients combined.

Even Gentlemen's Clubs have gone upscale: well lit, good menus and women without tatoos.

Women's magazines have had the same five articles over and over for the last fifty years, nothing changes.

New's Magazines? Remember the TOP news magazine in 1941? it was World Report. Its December 7th article was Peace in the Pacific. So much for news magazines. All they publish now are press releases.

Quote: Evenbob

I haven't opened a magazine in 15 years, why would I. They're all online now, or enough of them are.

That's why all circulation numbers are relatively small. These numbers are dated, but the relative ranking of these glamour, celebrity magazines shows you that the clear leader in Men's magazines is "Maxim" which has provacative, but not explicit photos.




the following list of American magazines is in accordance with their paid and non-paid circulation—as of the second half of 2013—based on data from the Alliance for Audited Media
Rank Name Circulation Founded Publisher
10 People 3,527,541 1974 Time Inc.
16 Cosmopolitan 3,015,858 1886 Hearst Magazines
22 Glamour 2,327,793 1939 Condé Nast Publications
25 Redbook 2,206,676 1903 Hearst Magazines
32 Maxim 2,028,076 1997 Biglari Holdings
52 Self 1,495,832 1979 Condé Nast Publications
65 Vogue 1,259,826 1892 Condé Nast Publications
66 Playboy 1,254,552 1953 Playboy Enterprises
71 Vanity Fair 1,205,229 1983 Condé Nast Publications
74 Allure 1,168,138 1991 Condé Nast Publications
78 Elle 1,109,785 1981 Hearst Magazines
88 Marie Claire 969,965 1994 Hearst Magazines

I was in People once. My invention was, anyway.
1978. I made the very first health food dogfood
when I lived in Marin county, N of San Francisco.
The idea was so unique it was under the 'Inventors'
section in People. I got out soon after because
I would have killed my partner had I stayed and
still be in jail. He's the only person in my life
that I've said to his face what I thought of him.
Just wanted to see his reaction. I think it was
a July '78 issue and had Carly Simon on the
cover.

Yup, this is it, I have it around here somewhere.

Quote: Pacomartin

Playboy subscription peaked in 1972, so they need subscribers period.

Playboy has been going after female readers since the late 1980's when Christie Hefner became CEO. They do merchandising aimed at women and celebrity pictorials, designed to resemble fashion shoots.

Playboy is not really racier than Cosmopolitan.

But their tagline is "Entertainment for Men." Go to far female and you lose that. Personally I still think it is de facto over for them in the USA. Their time was 1960-1979.

Peggy Wilkins is possibly the most obsessed female reader of playboy. She actually rents a whole apartment just to keep her back issues of playboy.

Quote: AZDuffman

But their tagline is "Entertainment for Men."

I don't think that there intention is that women will become the majority reader, but men just simply are not that profitable to write magazines for. Women are really the great consumers in society.

Hustler United States
Esquire US United States
GCaribbean United States
GQ USA United States
Maxim magazine United States
Men's Fitness United States
Men's Health US United States
Men's Journal United States
Muscle and Fitness United States
New Man (Christian lifestyle magazine) United States