# Playboy to Cease Publication **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778 "2020-03-19T01:46:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/21 "2020-03-19T11:20:45Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > At least they’ve saved the best interviews in book form. They always were the best part of the magazine. > > Yes, I typed that with a straight face. Well, from what I understand, there was a Braille edition of _Playboy_, so someone really was reading it for the articles. Still, I think it’s nice that the magazine should die during the year that we celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the 19th amendment. That would be women’s suffrage, for those of you running to Google. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/22 "2020-03-19T12:15:28Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > In what way? Because they appreciate the beauty of a woman’s body? If you have to ask the question . . . ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/23 "2020-03-19T12:51:06Z")
Didn’t I see this news a couple of years ago already? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/24 "2020-03-19T13:26:50Z")
RivkahChaya: > [@](#): > > Well, from what I understand, there was a Braille edition of Playboy, so someone really was reading it for the articles. Maybe that edition was in pop-up book form. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/25 "2020-03-19T13:35:02Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > RivkahChaya: > > Maybe that edition was in pop-up book form. That was Playgirl. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/26 "2020-03-19T13:47:40Z")
I thought it already had. Or is it they just don’t show nudes any more? I always preferred Penthouse anyway. Less phony looking women, less Playboy “cool, swave and deboner” attitude, and Penthouse Forum was some of the best fiction I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/27 "2020-03-19T13:48:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Didn’t I see this news a couple of years ago already? A couple years ago, they tried changing the magazine so it didn’t have the nude pictorials. I think it still featured pretty girls but no unclothed naughty bits. That experiment lasted a year before they changed back. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/28 "2020-03-19T14:35:16Z")
Well, playboy already felt like a relic of an older era when I’d sneak a peek at them while growing up in the 80s, I’m surprised they lasted until 2020. Seems like they’ve mostly been coasting on inertia since then. They actually had good interviews and published some interesting fiction at various times, but their basic model of ‘cater to rich older men who like young girls’ has worn a bit thin - not that that situation doesn’t exist, but the number of ‘pretty well-off middle aged guys’ has declined and so has the interest in a paper mag about it. I think that back in the day ‘nude women’ was a huge selling point all on its own, but now it just seems tawdry (you come off as very dudebro if you have playboys on your coffee table) but too tame for the serious smut enthusiast. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/29 "2020-03-19T14:46:40Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Well, from what I understand, there was a Braille edition of _Playboy_, so someone really was reading it for the articles. I tried to read the braille edition of Playboy but my fingers got stiff. _Ba-dump BOMP_ ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/30 "2020-03-19T15:04:59Z")
[Half Remembered Woody Allen Joke] Or do they just flip though to feel the good stuff?[/HRWAJ] ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/31 "2020-03-19T17:55:46Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > A couple years ago, they tried changing the magazine so it didn’t have the nude pictorials. I think it still featured pretty girls but no unclothed naughty bits. That experiment lasted a year before they changed back. I was actually fine with no nudity, but they messed too much with the format in other ways. Everything was presented in bite-sized, one-or-two-page “listicle” format for today’s short attention span world. Worst of all, no more cartoons. That was when I stopped subscribing after many years. I do recall hearing they went back to showing nudes, but I swear I also heard they stopped publishing altogether shortly thereafter. Guess not. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/32 "2020-03-19T18:12:46Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > I was actually fine with no nudity, but they messed too much with the format in other ways. Everything was presented in bite-sized, one-or-two-page “listicle” format for today’s short attention span world. Worst of all, no more cartoons. That was when I stopped subscribing after many years. > > I do recall hearing they went back to showing nudes, but I swear I also heard they stopped publishing altogether shortly thereafter. Guess not. It wasn’t just the nudes – they sucked all of the _fun_ out of the magazine. They took out the cartoons and all the colorful graphics, adopting a dull pastel palette. They took out many of the features, including, IIRC, the jokes. The only parts of the magazine that seemed like the “old” Playboy were the ads, which were still generally whimsical and colorful. They were designed with the older format in mind, and reminded you too much of what the magazine used to be. They stuck out like a healthy thumb. Then they decided to re-instate the nudes, and _some_ of the cartoons, and the jokes. But the magazine lost its smart-alecky tone. And it still had that pastel color scheme, and it still wasn’t like the old version. They were trying to make it into something else, maybe something they hoped would sell better, and they succeeded only in alienating their readers. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/33 "2020-03-19T18:30:50Z")
[quote=“Guest-starring\_Id, post:16, topic:849778”] Yeah I’ll miss the absolutely soulless sameness of the basically clothed models and the cartoon granny with the saggy football hooters. [quote] Hey, don’t dis the cartoons. Hefner himself originally wanted to be a cartoonist, and he took them seriously. According to comics boffins, Playboy was second only to The New Yorker in the quality of the “illustrations.” Offhand I recall Jack Cole (who also created Plastic Man) and the great Gahan Wilson. Playboy was the only venue that would publish Wilson’s full-page color work. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/34 "2020-03-19T18:53:29Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Well, from what I understand, there was a Braille edition of _Playboy_, so someone really was reading it for the articles. > Still, I think it’s nice that the magazine should die during the year that we celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the 19th amendment. That would be women’s suffrage, for those of you running to Google. > [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > I tried to read the braille edition of Playboy but my fingers got stiff. > > _Ba-dump BOMP_ They only feel it for the articles. _Ba-dump BOMP_[ ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/35 "2020-03-19T19:43:42Z")
The brand could absolutely be rebooted and bounce back. Don’t overthink the existential gender-relations aspect of it, and forget about the nudity. Midcentury-modern aesthetics and “cocktail culture” are back in a big way. _Mad Men_ helped bring this about, but there’s also been a general rediscovery and appreciation for the way things looked back then, among my generation, people in their 30s. There’s also growing interest in finely crafted consumer goods and vintage analog technology, especially stereo equipment and cameras. And God knows there’s plenty of political and social commentary to go around. If a genie put me in charge of the Playboy empire, I’m confident I could take that intellectual property and rebuild the brand. Unfortunately, only the shittiest people on earth seem to have genies. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/36 "2020-03-19T19:55:57Z")
For an example of what Playboy could be, look at Cigar Aficionado, which Wikipedia describes as “a lifestyle magazine, including coverage of wine, spirits, travel, gambling, and antiques.” It has a mostly male readership with average income of $184,000. Another example; Vanity Fair, which was revived in 1983 after having been dead for decades. GQ is another magazine that covers much the same territory that Playboy could have. Perhaps had Hefner handed over control to a younger editor earlier, it might have evolved. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/37 "2020-03-19T19:56:29Z")
**Playboy** was the right thing for the right time. It amply filled a void that no longer exists. ---
**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:** [March 19, 2020, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/38 "2020-03-19T20:53:11Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I’ll miss it, I guess, but **Playboy** is one of those things where no matter when you look at it, you wish it was as good as you remember it used to be, and it never was. The big deal celebrity pictorials usually turned out to be either clothed, or maybe ten-twenty years after you really wanted to see them nude. Kim Basinger got hers in right on time, but everybody else… Marilyn and Madonna’s were swell, but neither of them had actual plans at the time to appear in **Playboy**. I’m trying to think of the last celebrity who was not a model or reality show “star” who did a Playboy pictorial during the uphill or peak stage of her career. There was Charlize Theron but, like Marilyn and Madonna, those were old pre-fame photos Playboy acquired rather than an actual magazine photo shoot. Teri Polo is probably the last one since she was at her peak career-wise (i.e., Ben Stiller’s wife and Robert De Niro’s daughter in **Meet the Fockers** ). Aside from that, an actress or singer doing a Playboy pictorial was almost always a sign their career was finished. The next time they’d be in the news it would be about them doing a basic cable reality show, getting into a scrape with the law (e.g, DUI, felony drug possession), going into rehab, or their obituary. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/39 "2020-03-19T20:59:58Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Perhaps had Hefner handed over control to a younger editor earlier, it might have evolved. He did. To his daughter Christie. She rose thru the ranks to become Chair and CEO in 1988 (so more control than an editor). She turned things around for a bit but it didn’t last. She left in 2009. Then things got even worse. (Hefner taking the company private in 2011 didn’t help.) His son Cooper meanwhile was moving up the ranks and is now more or less in charge of the biz. It’s a strange thing. In some ways H. Hefner was a complete embarrassment for the brand in the last 20+ years of his life. OTOH, things like _The Girls Next Door_ were quite successful for reasons not at all clear to me. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778/40 "2020-03-19T21:01:47Z")
Clearly Christie Hefner wasn’t the right one to run things. Had he put the right outsider in charge, it might have made a difference. Look at what Graydon Carter did with Vanity Fair or Tina Brown with The New Yorker; both super-talented magazine heads. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playboy-to-cease-publication/849778.md?page=3)