Playboy Cleans Its Act

Breaking news (mainly for the males, but interesting news for everyone) is that Playboy Magazine, the first popular magazine to show naked women in centerfolds and as features, has announced that it will no longer show female boobs, and T and A. I can remember as a boy how excited an adolescent became at even thinking of taking a peek at naked women in Playboy. But in this day of Internet porno any kid or adult for that matter can easily find nude men and women, and often free of charge. I suppose the raunchy Internet porno has made Playboy too tame to even bother looking. It's hard to compete with hard core porn if your magazine publishes soft core porn only.

Playboy says it will no longer publish images of fully nude women in its magazine beginning this spring, and  that the magazine and web site will now be nude free.  his will test the old refrain that men used to give. "I only read Playboy because of the articles." I never believed that one.  Playboy magazine circulation was 5.6 million copies in 1975 and has dropped to about 800,000 today. Hmmmm I guess the articles today aren't as "attractive"...or something. Uh, I know I can't remember a single article published in Playboy.

This is probably a futile attempt to save Playboy, given that most print magazines have seen steady declines in readership, with many ceasing publication altogether. But Playboy said in its announcement that it no longer publish unclothed women that it is doing well with non naked photos of beautiful women, for it articles, and content that emphasizes  humor, sex and culture. 

But what will Playboy's niche be? It used to be naked girls. And now it will be as a general interest magazine. I think many readers (mostly men) will become bored with the new Playboy and it may come to an end sooner rather than later. But then, in this age of short burst or non reading, it may have plenty of company in its grave.