‘Playboy’ Officially Enters ‘Safe for Work’ Era

In an attempt to “reach a new generation of readers,” Playboy magazine has entered a new era in its long publication history.

The nearly 60-year-old men’s magazine has made several sweeping changes to its content in an attempt to maintain cultural relevance, with the most obvious and drastic change being the magazine will no longer feature full nudity in its pages, a move prompted by the ubiquitousness of Internet pornography that has partly dug into the magazine’s long-held nudity cache.

In addition, the magazine is ditching it’s monthly list of “party jokes” and famous cartoons.

Not all elements of the magazine are changing however, as its celebrated fiction and featured interview sections will remain.
While the magazine admits it’s likely to lose some subscribers because of the switch, the removal of the full nudity has opened the doors to bring in new advertisers who previously would not do business with the brand.

Playboy CEO Scott Flanders explained the changes to CNN bluntly, stating, “I think in today’s world it’s sort of unrealistic to think that anyone’s subscribing to Playboy magazine because they can’t find nudity anywhere else. That would be a pretty un-creative subscriber.”

In place of the old content, the magazine is putting a heavy emphasis on material geared to appeal to young millennial readers. Examples include the cover girl for the March Playboy being social media star Sarah McDaniel in a photo meant to look like a Snapchat message, and the month’s 20 Questions feature is a sit down with the stars of Comedy Central’s Broad City. The overall goal is to move Playboy into the realm of lifestyle magazines like Vanity Fair.

When discussing how the magazine integrated the new and old content Cory Jones, the magazine’s chief content officer, told CNN, “There’s a lot that we’re keeping of the DNA of the magazine, but there’s a lot we’re evolving to.”

Specifically speaking on what the magazine’s pictorials will look like without full frontal nudity, Jones said, “It’s going to be sexy, but it’s going to be safe for work.”