NEW YORK - Playboy Enterprises Inc. announced John Lumpkin was named vice president, associate publisher of Playboy Digital, while Robert Eisenhardt was promoted to vice president, associate publisher for Playboy magazine.
Both men will be based in PEI's Publishing Group headquarters in New York.
"Combining Playboy's publishing and digital groups was a conscious effort to grow our overall audience and to effectively aggregate that audience for our advertising partners," said Lou Mohn, publisher and general manager of Playboy magazine. "John and Rob will work closely together with their teams to create cross-platform sales opportunities and help new and existing advertisers reach the 18- to 34-year-old male demographic."
The announcements were made in the wake of news that Playboy would lay off 80 people and stop making DVDs in a restructuring effort aimed at saving $12 million in annual expenses.
Lumpkin, 32, will rejoin Playboy on Oct. 27 after having previously worked for the magazine from 2000-04 as a sales manager. Most recently, he was senior vice president of sales strategy and partnerships at Heavy.com. In his new role, Lumpkin will head digital sales efforts for both Playboy.com and Playboy Mobile.
Eisenhardt, 47, will continue in his role as associate publisher for the magazine, overseeing the national sales efforts for print. Since joining Playboy in May 2006 from PRIMEDIA's Consumer Automobile Group, Eisenhardt has increased revenue from existing accounts and developed more than $3 million in new business in the consumer electronics, gaming, tobacco, OTC pharmaceuticals and fragrance categories, among others.
