# Does Playboy make any money? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 1, 2010, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708 "2010-10-01T11:33:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/41 "2010-10-02T03:53:59Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > > [@OpalCat](#): > > > > I buy Playboy for my teenage son (to stave off him searching for teh nekkid online/behind our backs) and it costs like $11/year for a subscription. I’m not surprised that they lose money. > > Why exactly? Why is one okay but not the other? I have a very hard time understanding that. If anything, _Playboy_ encourages a very “fake” looking concept of a woman, highly made-up, airbrushed, etc. He’s not going to see any woman in that magazine that even remotely resembles the girls who are his peers. > > I have a collection of vintage (60s and 70s) Playboys; I read them for the advertising. There is NO better treasure trove of vintage advertising than this magazine. This stuff is the real Mad Men. Because porn sites are notorious for serving up viruses, for one thing. For another, I don’t think he needs to be exposed to people pooping on each other and all the other really gross shit that’s out there. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/42 "2010-10-02T04:07:12Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > > [@NDP](#): > > > > So would I. For me, it would be like if at my 12th birthday my parents gave me a Velvet Underground album and told me this was a band they thought I should be listening to. I’d be too weirded out to enjoy it. > > Why would that be weird? I got a lot of CDs from my parents when I was first listening to music. I think when I first got into the Velvet Underground (not at age 12, at college), I took their best of album to put onto my iTunes. Well, because I turned 12 in 1977 when both my parents were in their 40s and the Velvet Underground was still considered to be a disbanded cult band whose frequently discordantly-sounding songs often dealt with such radio-unfriendly topics like hard drug use, prostitution, S&M, and the fatal result of mailing yourself in a large box to your girlfriend. It would’ve been hard enough to believe that they even listened to them once let alone liking them and then passing on the album to their pre-teen son. ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/43 "2010-10-02T04:08:42Z")
FWIW, in other parts of the world where Playboy Magazine is prohibited from being sold they operate other legit businesses under the playboy brand. Playboy is a pretty big clothing manufacturer here in China. I’ve had people point out their Playboy blazer to me with pride thinking that it’s some top-level brand name clothier in the West, only for me to get confused (Playboy makes clothes? WTF?) and for them to get confused (Playboy is really a magazine with naked women in it, not a clothing brand? WTF?). I’m sure at least some of their money comes for these other ventures. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/44 "2010-10-02T07:10:29Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > FWIW, in other parts of the world where Playboy Magazine is prohibited from being sold they operate other legit businesses under the playboy brand. Playboy is a pretty big clothing manufacturer here in China. I’ve had people point out their Playboy blazer to me with pride thinking that it’s some top-level brand name clothier in the West, only for me to get confused (Playboy makes clothes? WTF?) and for them to get confused (Playboy is really a magazine with naked women in it, not a clothing brand? WTF?). I’m sure at least some of their money comes for these other ventures. At least two recent computer games (_Mafia II_ and _Dead Rising 2_) feature _Playboy_ centrefolds or magazine covers in varying degrees of prominence, not to mention the _Playboy: The Mansion_ game (which was essentially _The Sims_ with more nudity) so I think they’re making a move in the “Licensing For Games” area. As a clothing brand, though, Playboy have apparently done pretty well- even here, I see Playboy-brand carseat covers and accessories, underwear, and women’s clothing (aimed at the Twentysomething Female market) all the time. I suspect many of the women wearing a Playboy T-shirt are either unaware that the magazine is still being published or that it’s something their dad probably used to enjoy “reading” in his private time back when he was their age. Incidentally, I read somewhere that most of the staff at _Playboy_ are actually female, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/45 "2011-01-10T14:07:59Z")
Playboy [agreed](http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/news/article.aspx?feed=PR&date=20110110&id=12582597) today to go private at $6.15 a share, valuing the company at $177.4 million, by my calculation. The stock was north of $24 at the end of 1999. ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/46 "2011-01-10T22:44:04Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > At least two recent computer games (_Mafia II_ and _Dead Rising 2_) feature _Playboy_ centrefolds or magazine covers in varying degrees of prominence, not to mention the _Playboy: The Mansion_ game (which was essentially _The Sims_ with more nudity) so I think they’re making a move in the “Licensing For Games” area. > > As a clothing brand, though, Playboy have apparently done pretty well- even here, I see Playboy-brand carseat covers and accessories, underwear, and women’s clothing (aimed at the Twentysomething Female market) all the time. I suspect many of the women wearing a Playboy T-shirt are either unaware that the magazine is still being published or that it’s something their dad probably used to enjoy “reading” in his private time back when he was their age. Playboy doesn’t really manufacture clothes or anything like that. They simply license their brand to other companies and collect a royalty. That makes up a little more than 10% of the company’s revenues. ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/47 "2011-01-10T22:49:30Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > They don’t. 2009 net income: ($51,278,000) This is a little deceiving. They did lose $51MM in 2009 (and $160MM in 2008); however, the majority of that is non-recurring and non-cash losses. The bulk of it is impairment charges that they had to take on goodwill. They also took impairment charges on some trademarks. They also had some significant non-recurring cash losses mostly related to restructuring. From a cash flow standpoint, they have been about breakeven from an operating cash flow standpoint. ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/48 "2011-01-10T23:07:31Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Is there any reason why Hefner never really moved into the hard-core adult film market? Was he always living in a 1950s mode of what he thought a swinger was: well furnished home, pipe silk pajamas, cocktail ? Show some nudity but “we have legitimate articles too!”? Or were there mob guys who told him “stay where you are: the hard core stuff is ours. Move in and you’ll wake up with a bunny’s head in your bed”? They have plenty of hardcore stuff; it just may not be under the playboy name. Playboy Enterprises owns Spice and Club Jenna to name a couple. ---
**Author:** ![3waygeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e95f7d/32.png) [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/49 "2011-01-11T21:00:29Z")
Well, they certainly aren’t spending money updating their mailing list. I’d subscribed for almost 30 years, and let my subscription lapse last year – the magazine has been getting much thinner of late, mostly at the expense of fiction & reporting (the infamous “articles” everyone reads _Playboy_ for), and I no longer consider it worth reading. They’re still sending me a fresh issue every month, several months after the subscription expired. Maybe they’re hoping I’ll see something I like & re-subscribe. ---
**Author:** ![lisalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/0ea827/32.png) [@lisalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisalan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/50 "2011-01-11T21:03:07Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > I buy Playboy for my teenage son (to stave off him searching for teh nekkid online/behind our backs) and it costs like $11/year for a subscription. I’m not surprised that they lose money. Wow. I can’t believe you buy the magazine for your son. Is your wife ok with that? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/51 "2011-01-11T21:08:03Z")
> [@lisalan](#): > > Wow. I can’t believe you buy the magazine for your son. Is your wife ok with that? I believe the poster is straight. ---
**Author:** ![Shooby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@Shooby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shooby)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/52 "2011-01-11T21:09:21Z")
> [@lisalan](#): > > Wow. I can’t believe you buy the magazine for your son. Is your wife ok with that? I imagine a lot of the thrill of seeing nekkid hotties is gone when it’s your parents providing you with them. I’ll say chances are good he’s getting some of that online sugar anyway. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/53 "2011-01-11T21:09:44Z")
> [@lisalan](#): > > Wow. I can’t believe you buy the magazine for your son. Is your wife ok with that? That’s the mother. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/54 "2011-01-11T21:09:53Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I believe the poster is straight. And female.\* \*If not made evident by the quoted post. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/55 "2011-01-11T21:51:49Z")
Yes to repeat what everyone already said, I’m the wife in my marriage, and the mother to my son. His step-father, my husband, doesn’t mind, no. Nor does his dad. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/56 "2011-01-11T21:56:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Either you’re misremembering, or you got a spectacular deal. Naw, I saw the same offer in the booklet for my little girls’ magazine subscription fund-raiser for her third-grade class. 😉 But I _can_ get a year of Fortune for like $20, which seems to be a money-losing proposition for Time-Life Inc. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708/57 "2011-01-11T22:27:19Z")
Note: It’s gone up a little since the last time we did it: [subscription: 1 year = $12 + $3.96 delivery fee](https://w1.buysub.com/pubs/PY/PLY/PBY_hardsub.jsp?cds_page_id=33578&cds_mag_code=PLY&id=1294784643099&lsid=10111624029040435&vid=1&cds_response_key=INRS111). We are currently running out our subscription and will not be getting a new one for Dominic until his grades come up. (Not that I think the magazine has anything to do with his grades, it’s just a “removing privileges” thing.) Note: if that link doesn’t work, try this one and click “Subscribe now and get a FREE DVD” [link possibly NSFW](http://www.playboy.com/girls/celebrities/features/magazine/january2011/playboy-magazine-january-11.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-playboy-make-any-money/555708.md?page=2)