A price hike for its Playboy Cyber Club and a 58 percent jump in subscription sales meant a narrower second-quarter loss for Playboy Enterprises and a prediction by the company that they would beat their own operating income forecasts for the year.
In the 50th anniversary year of the magazine which started everything in the first place, Playboy Enterprises reported a 4 cents a share, net loss of $900,000 for the quarter ending in June, compared to 12 cents a share and $3.1 million a year earlier, with revenues up 8 percent ($76 million) from 2002 and better Playboy newsstand sales, according to Reuters.
"The media sector is still recovering from the dot-com bust and the fall-out in advertising spending," said chief executive officer Christie Hefner in a statement, "but against that we were able to demonstrate strong profits from all three of our media businesses."
Playboy's entertainment group was also helped by domestic television and more international television results offsetting lower home video and DVD sales, Reuters said.
