In a move that might cause founder Hugh Hefner to turn over in his grave, today, Playboy Enterprises CEO Ben Kohn announced in an open letter on Medium.com that the iconic magazine would cease print publication, and henceforth would be available in digital format only.
Blaming the general decrease in print magazine sales, coupled with the coronavirus' impact on content production and the supply chain, Kohn stated, "With all of this in mind, we have decided that our Spring 2020 Issue, which arrives on U.S. newsstands and as a digital download this week, will be our final printed publication for the year in the U.S. We will move to a digital-first publishing schedule for all of our content including the Playboy Interview, 20Q, the Playboy Advisor and of course our Playmate pictorials."
Playboy magazine, which began life in December, 1953, gained immediate notoriety for its inclusion of a centerfold and nude photos of then-rising Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe, and its fame only grew from there, with the magazine in its heyday typically selling several million copies every month. Its best-selling month was November 1972, featuring cover model Pam Rawlings, when 7,161,561 were sold.
Perhaps even better known than the magazine itself is its rabbit head silhouette logo, which first appeared in the second issue, and its use, both on Playboy products and licensed materials, continues to bring in big bucks to this day.
"Playboy is many things to many people," Kohn stated in his letter. "A magazine to many, a lifestyle to many more, an apparel brand, a membership club and even, according to some, 'a corruptor of our youth.' But throughout the past sixty-six years, one thing has remained constant: our commitment to free expression and breaking taboos, leaning into discomfort, helping audiences express and understand their sexuality, and advocating for the pursuit of pleasure for all."
Among the celebrities who sat for Playboy interviews were filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, Oscar-winning actress Bette Davis, Lolita author Vladimir Nabokov, musicians/artists Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, journalist Hunter S. Thompson, American Nazi Party head George Lincoln Rockwell, and evangelist/freedom fighter Martin Luther King Jr. Lists of other Playboy interviewees can be found here and here.
According to Kohn, however, even as print sales have dropped, the company Playboy Enterprises continues to bring in the cash.
"Our audience is massive," he wrote in his letter. "We drive over $3 billion in annual consumer spend worldwide. We reach hundreds of millions of eyeballs every year, across all genders. This past year, our focus has been on meeting audiences where they are. We gained over 4 million new Instagram followers and saw over 50 percent growth in engagement on our social channels in the past 6 months, grew our digital video subscriptions by almost 30 percent year-over-year and acquired a direct-to-consumer commerce operation that serves almost one million active customers every month."
But while the monthly bimonthly quarterly publication may be a thing of the past after the current issue, that doesn't mean the company will cease printing anything Playboy-related.
"In 2021, alongside our digital content offerings and new consumer product launches, we will bring back fresh and innovative printed offerings in a variety of new forms–through special editions, partnerships with the most provocative creators, timely collections and much more. Print is how we began and print will always be a part of who we are."
But whether in print or digital, Playboy will continue to captivate men's (and many women's) imaginations for years to come.
Pictured: The covers of Playboy's first issue and its second-to-last (Winter 2020)
