It was the magazine that launched a million puberties, but times have changed. Playboy magazine, founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner, became as much a lifestyle guide as a sex magazine. But the Internet and changing morals have surpassed the airbrushed posed nudes that have graced its pages for 62 years.
With unlimited pornography available with just a few keystrokes and clicks, the centerfold has lost its allure. As part of an editorial redesign of the magazine, Playboy has announced they are doing away with nude centerfolds altogether.
“You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture,” said Playboy CEO Scott Flanders.
Suffering from falling circulation, from a height of 5.6 million in the mid-70s to just 800,000 now, the revamp has the approval of founder and editor in chief Hefner.
The magazine will still run photos of provocatively-posed women, but they will no longer be fully nude.
Playboy became known as more than a “dirty men’s magazine.” It’s been a cultural leader on music, provocative political interviews and has a history of investigative journalism. Those aspects of the Playboy brand will continue.
Cory Jones, a top Playboy editor who presented the idea to Hefner, express the feelings of most men when he said, “Don’t get me wrong, 12-year-old me is very disappointed in current me. But it’s the right thing to do.”