'I‘m never going to grow up': The life and legacy of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who has died age 91 /OjGxluo3D7 The magazine reversed itself on its no-nudes policy earlier this year, saying nudity was part of its identity. Then the company sold the Playboy Mansion for $100 million to next-door neighbour Daren Metropoulos, owner of Hostess (maker of Twinkies, Ho Hos and Ding Dongs). Hefner's son Cooper, then 24, was brought in as chief creative officer in July 2016. Mr Flanders left, and the CEO now is Ben Kohn, a managing partner at Rizvi Traverse, Playboy's majority owner. Playboy didn't end up selling itself, but made a string of changes anyway. Private equity firms typically acquire troubled companies, then try to slash costs, improve profitability and resell them for a higher price. Media reports from spring 2016 said that Playboy was looking to sell itself for $500 million, more than double the price paid in 2011. Then in October 2015 it declared that the magazine would no longer publish the nude photos it was famous for.
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It sold its adult TV and digital operations to an internet porn company. Playboy aimed more upscale, dropping licensing deals that were more low-market in the US. (Video 2011, as Hefner and private equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management arranged to take Playboy private, then-CEO Scott Flanders highlighted its transition to a “brand management company”. Hugh Hefner 1926-2017: the life and times of a Playboy /iNo2uNQZ8B well, there's no shortage of compelling journalism spread across the internet and available in your Facebook newsfeed.
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Pornography for just about any taste or flavour is now available for free online.įor those who read Playboy for the articles. The free-for-all of internet publishing that has squeezed the newspaper and magazine industries has done likewise for Hefner's brainchild. But today its circulation has fallen below 500,000, according to industry tracker the Alliance for Audited Media. Playboy, born in 1953, is still putting out print issues. “The magazine is sort of the tiny part of the equation now,” said Samir Husni, director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi.
The magazine itself, whose circulation peaked in the 1970s at 7 million, is now seen as more of a marketing tool that supports the licensing operations at the heart of the modern company. It now lives on primarily as a set of bunny ears slapped on products around the world.
A business empire grew out of that, but it's shrunk considerably over the years.
Hugh Hefner's Playboy, a magazine founded to celebrate his “Playboy Philosophy” of sexual freedom, influenced sexual mores and popular culture for decades. NEW YORK: Playboy Enterprises has outlived the founder of its iconic magazine, though largely as a shadow of its former self. Bottom row from left, Barbi Benton on the July 1969 issue, Anna Nicole Smith on June 1993, Jenny McCarthy on January 2005 and Pamela Anderson on the Jan/Feb 2016 issue. This combination photo of images released by Playboy, shows top row from left, Marilyn Monroe on the cover of the December 1953 issue, Janet Pilgrim on July 1955, Donna Michelle on May 1964 and Turid Lundberg on June 1965.