Playboy Cover Up: No More Nudity In Magazine
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Starting next year, fans of Playboy magazine will really be subscribing for the articles.
In March, the magazine, which was launched here in Chicago and helped to ignite a sexual revolution, will no longer depict nudity.
The magazine will continue to publish seductive pictorials, along with long-form journalism, interviews and fiction.
The writing has always been a big part of the publication, which led to the oft-quoted phrase: "I read it for the articles."
The change can be attributed to the simple fact that nudity, and pornography, is so widely available that the idea of thumbing through a magazine for pictures of naked women has become passe.
"The political and sexual climate of 1953, the year Hugh Hefner introduced Playboy to the world, bears almost no resemblance to today," said Playboy Enterprises CEO Scott Flanders. "We are more free to express ourselves politically, sexually and culturally today, and that's in large part thanks to Hef's heroic mission to expand those freedoms."
The Chicago-born Hefner, 89, still the editor in chief, approved of the change.
According to Alliance for Audited Media, the magazine sold 5.6 million in 1975 and has dropped to about 800,000 today, according to the New York Times.
The jury's out on whether less skin will produce more readers.
"The mag itself was a rite of passage for a lot of young men," said Joy Bivins of the Chicago History Museum. "Now they have a different audience they're trying to attract. We'll see what happens."
Former Playboy Bunny of the Year Candace Jordan moved into Chicago's Playboy Mansion with Hugh Hefner in the 70s.
"It's heartbreaking to me really because I don't want to lose that era of Playboy," she said.
At Chicago-Main Newstand, only 15 copies sold per month, down from about 40, a decade ago.
"So they're investing some resources and some energy into seeing, can we make this something that can survive the next couple decades," said Northwestern University assistant professor Stephanie Edgerly.
