Playboy to drop nude pictures by 2016, aiming at PG-13 content.

[The Larch]

O how the mighty have fallen:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/business/media/nudes-are-old-news-at-playboy.html?_r=2

Last month, Cory Jones, a top editor at Playboy, went to see its founder Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion.

In a wood-paneled dining room, with Picasso and de Kooning prints on the walls, Mr. Jones nervously presented a radical suggestion: the magazine, a leader of the revolution that helped take sex in America from furtive to ubiquitous, should stop publishing images of naked women.

Mr. Hefner, now 89, but still listed as editor in chief, agreed. As part of a redesign that will be unveiled next March, the print edition of Playboy will still feature women in provocative poses. But they will no longer be fully nude.

Its executives admit that Playboy has been overtaken by the changes it pioneered. "That battle has been fought and won," said Scott Flanders, the company's chief executive. "You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it's just passé at this juncture."

For a generation of American men, reading Playboy was a cultural rite, an illicit thrill consumed by flashlight. Now every teenage boy has an Internet-connected phone instead. Pornographic magazines, even those as storied as Playboy, have lost their shock value, their commercial value and their cultural relevance.

Playboy's circulation has dropped from 5.6 million in 1975 to about 800,000 now, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. Many of the magazines that followed it have disappeared. Though detailed figures are not kept for adult magazines, many of those that remain exist in severely diminished form, available mostly in specialist stores. Penthouse, perhaps the most famous Playboy competitor, responded to the threat from digital pornography by turning even more explicit. It never recovered.

(...)

The latest redesign, 62 years later, is more pragmatic. The magazine had already made some content safe for work, Mr. Flanders said, in order to be allowed on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, vital sources of web traffic.

In August of last year, its website dispensed with nudity. As a result, Playboy executives said, the average age of its reader dropped from 47 to just over 30, and its web traffic jumped to about 16 million from about four million unique users per month.

The magazine will adopt a cleaner, more modern style, said Mr. Jones, who as chief content officer also oversees its website. There will still be a Playmate of the Month, but the pictures will be "PG-13" and less produced — more like the racier sections of Instagram. "A little more accessible, a little more intimate," he said. It is not yet decided whether there will still be a centerfold.

[Syt]

"Do you remember when MTV used to show music videos?" "Do you know remember when History Channel used to show history documentaries?" "Do you remember when Playboy used to show boobies?"

[Legbiter]

Then what's the point of Playboy? 

[The Larch]

Then what's the point of Playboy? 

The articles, I guess. 

In August of last year, its website dispensed with nudity. As a result, Playboy executives said, the average age of its reader dropped from 47 to just over 30, and its web traffic jumped to about 16 million from about four million unique users per month.

[Legbiter]

[Berkut]

It may not work, but it is the smart move at this point.

There is no market for naked chicks in a magazine anymore, nor will there ever be again.

[Solmyr]

Then what's the point of Playboy? 

There hasn't been any point to Playboy since free internet porn became widely available.

[Valmy]

Then what's the point of Playboy? 

Pay the Playboy Mansion's property taxes?

[Josephus]

Playboy has always been above teh whole porn thing. A restructure of the magazine in this sense sort of makes sense. Although reading Playboy for the articles is a long-running joke, fact is they can position themselves in that market focusing on their articles, and fashion spreads etc. They've always had good pieces from well-known writers, they can focus on that more now.

[Razgovory]

Playboy has always been above teh whole porn thing. A restructure of the magazine in this sense sort of makes sense. Although reading Playboy for the articles is a long-running joke, fact is they can position themselves in that market focusing on their articles, and fashion spreads etc. They've always had good pieces from well-known writers, they can focus on that more now.

Yeah, without the nudie shot it's essentially literary magazine.

[Valmy]

Playboy has always been above teh whole porn thing. A restructure of the magazine in this sense sort of makes sense. Although reading Playboy for the articles is a long-running joke, fact is they can position themselves in that market focusing on their articles, and fashion spreads etc. They've always had good pieces from well-known writers, they can focus on that more now.

They have always tried to present themselves as a lifestyle magazine than a porn magazine. In any case not a whole lot of people buy dirty magazines anymore.

[The Larch]

They basically want to be a classier FHM.

[Valmy]

They basically want to be a classier FHM.

Such a high hurdle to clear!

[Admiral Yi]

My theory is that Playboy has become a dating service for men who really, really love fake boobs.

[Valmy]

My theory is that Playboy has become a dating service for men who really, really love fake boobs.

Pity this transformation did not occur back when Cal was still single.