Playboy to remove nudity from magazine

The decision was proposed by Cory Jones, Playboy’s Chief Content Officer, and has the backing of the magazine’s founder Hugh Hefner, reports the New York Times.

Playboy executives think the availability of free pornographic images online means that magazines have lost their shock value and cultural relevance.

“That battle has been fought and won,” said Scott Flanders, Playboy’s chief executive. “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture.”

Above: Hugh Hefner poses with some ‘bunny girls’ in a Playboy club in 1962

The magazine is to adopt a cleaner style and although the images will still feature models in “provocative” poses, the images will be “a little more accessible, a little more intimate”, according to Cory Jones.

Much more focus will be given to Playboy’s website, which have already dispensed with nudity.

Playboy bosses said that when nudity was ditched in August last year, the average of readers dropped from 47 to 30. Traffic quadrupled to 16 million users per month.

In contrast, the US edition of the magazine loses about $3m a year. Circulation has dropped from 5.6 million in 1975 to about 800,000 today.

Above: A Playboy party in San Diego, 2015

Despite falling sales, Playboy’s brand is as strong as ever and the company’s logo is one of the most recognisable in the world.

The magazine’s founder and editor-in-chief, 89-year-old Hugh Hefner, owns about 30 per cent of the magazine.