pussy-free playmates?

i’ll be curious to see how far they take this…

…will it still be topless? or just a pricey, more tasteful maxim?

playboy announced yesterday it will remove full nudity from its pages as of march 2016. this move follows them doing so on their website last year, which plunged the median age of site viewer from 47 to 30 and traffic quadruple as a result. the reason?

internet porn.

in a world where you are a click away from “all anal asian amputees” or whatever your closet kink is it makes sense to stop trying to compete in the dying art of paper publication or anything associated with it. so while i DID actually swipe an issue or two from the shop strictly for the articles (we get two subscriptions there so it was never missed when i’d do so, and i always ended up taking ’em back), now it’s really the only reason to pick it up? i’ll be curious to see if it makes them more viable in this day and age – and help their brand as a result. sure, it’ll still be playboy, and still have it’s history, but will be more available and, they hope, less taboo. while the company turns a profit when all revenue streams (clothing, lingerie, bath products, etc) are taken into account, the magazine itself actually operates on a seven figure loss ANNUALLY for the last several years, which the company just views as a marketing expense. let’s face it, without the magazine, there isn’t a “playboy” per say, but now you’ll no longer look like a super perv when you buy it at the airport magazine rack and take it on the plane!

i’ll be curious to see if this revitalizes the brand, and also if we’ll see a final spike. while the issue one, with marilyn monroe on the cover is the most valuable and sought after:

note it says “issue one” but has no date, because heffner didn’t know if or when there’d be a second one

the biggest selling issue ever was actually this one:

why? because that was the month and year asian distribution began. i’ll be curious to see if this move makes the month prior to it (february of next year) be a collector’s item. possibly even be THE biggest seller? with a lot less folks going after it then they did back then (1975 circulation – 5,600,000 versus 2015 – 800,000) i’m not gonna lie – it does make swiping one of the shop copies kinda tempting…