Penthouse magazine’s racy letters from readers are going audio and online under a deal struck by the publication and Oregon-based Sounds Publishing.
The agreement means selected letters from Penthouse Letters, Forum and from Variations magazine will be made available as audio downloads through the Website www.penthouseaudio.com.
“We had this backlog of adult erotica and we were thinking of ways to bring it to a new demographic and new audience,” said Chris Calvosa, director of retail sales and marketing at the Florida-based magazine.
“We found this great way to repurpose and market the content into an audio format.”
The letters were recorded by Sounds Publishing into sound files and are now available for purchase online. The letters, which run a few minutes, cost $2.99 each or $19.95 per compact disc, made up of eight to nine letters. The CDs are also available at bookstores, through Audible.com, Drugstore.com, Babeland and other locations.
“The Website is easy to navigate and you can download the stories just like on I-Tunes,” said Penthouse spokeswoman Kathleen Berzon, referring to apple.com’s I-Tunes music download Website.
The company says the effort is aimed at women ages 21 to 54 because they are more often stimulated by mental imagery than men.
Magazine’s move comes as the latest effort meant to bolster its bottom line. In the past year, the company has begun marketing its own line of lingerie and is developing its own jewelry line.
It also opened two Penthouse Boutique stores in Milford and Hartford, Conn., with plans to open others around the country.
It was just over a year ago that South Florida real estate developer Marc Bell acquired Penthouse and its parent company, General Media when the magazine’s longtime publisher and founder Bob Guccione filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for debts totaling $39.9 million.
