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Saturday, November 15. 2008
The Bunny Redux
Just recently a news item briefly appeared on the Internet portal Yahoo discussing the decline of circulation for Playboy magazine and the possibility that the hard copy version of the popular men’s magazine would soon vanish from the top shelf of the local 7-11 forever.
Well that touched off a firestorm of interest on Playboy’s online flagship, the Cyber Club (which has a forum where members can discuss just about any topic, most often the models themselves), with views ranging from: “it’ll be gone in five years” to “it will never go away.” Personally, I’m in the latter camp.
One great thing about online chats, forums and message boards, you can be sure every conceivable opinion will be aired and every conceivable rumor will get circulated. Here are a few excerpts. The names, fake as they are, have been deleted because, well, because. I know for a long time I was embarrassed to be known as a loyal Playboy reader. Just mention the magazine and one is bound to get into a debate, ranging from the tired old “it exploits women” to “It just doesn’t appeal to me anymore,” which in reality means “My wife would object.” More on that later. (Part of the first post) The fact of the matter is over the next 10 years I think we'll see several media outlets cease printing operations. I've already heard rumors that the S.F. Chronicle is considering this.
(The unsatisfied masses) Maybe it has something to do with the quality of the content.
(Just the way it is) Everything will go digital ... eventually. I wouldn't worry about it yet—the magazine is the gateway in to all things Playboy. As long as the company makes money, they'll have the magazine.
(one of my favorites) Hef’s lifestyle runs well into seven or eight figures a year in overhead. Once he’s gone to that big Woo Grotto in the sky, the company should be seeing less red ink.
(And a great reply!) That’s about a 20-30 year wait, knowing Hef.
(And the best reply!) Good lord, the last woman Hef might boff may not yet be born!
(Defiance) Say what you want, but an end to Playboy magazine would be an end to an American icon.
(My reply) I have had a subscription to Playboy since 1975; so I'm taking the liberty to make a little comparison. I have been a loyal Macintosh user since 1984. In these 23 years I have read on several occasions someone pontificating — with great authority — on the inevitable demise of Apple and the Macintosh, last time was 1997 if I remember correctly. And yet here I am, typing away on my ... 8th?, 9th? Macintosh.
(Another’s reply to me) Of course Playboy is here for a long time to come. I don't think we're really questioning the survival of Playboy, only the survival of the print magazine. To use your analogy, few (if any) are still using the original Apple Macintosh. The Mac is still around, just not in its original form. The original Mac became outdated and printed material is becoming outdated. (And of course I had to clarify) I’m sorry, I should have made my post more clear: Playboy, the print magazine, will be around for a long, long time to come. To expand on my analogy, a good argument can be made that what keeps Apple afloat is not the Macintosh computer, but the iPod, iPhone and the Apple generated software (QuickTime, et. al.) created for that technology. And yet, I’m looking into buying yet another Mac, the latest version since mine is just over three years old. Like the Macintosh computer, which has evolved in the 23 years since it’s debut, Playboy, the print magazine, has evolved and will continue to do so. Would Playboy have any readership today if their musical focus was still on the be-bop jazz so cool in the 1950’s? That’s just one area of interest, but Playboy has embraced the changing social shifts in the zeitgeist since at least the late 1960’s when we saw Playmates with pictures of the Beatles on the walls in their photos. Back in the day, that was a shock to the long-time Playboy readers of that time. Other than that, I concur with your view that there are myriad ways for Playboy to turn a profit besides its print editions. (I’m long-winded)
(Desperation?) If this is the case I certainly hope Breann McGregor becomes a Playmate as soon as possible! (The Voices of Reason) Shows you what Yahoo knows! Playboy's circulation has varied over the years, but the mid seventies, as you say, was its Zenith, with more than six million copies in circulation. Since then, it has dropped to around 3.2 million, and has been at the rate for more than thirty years. Remember, though, that Playboy now has a digital edition, the CC, and various other websites, too. While the hard copy magazine MIGHT be losing money, PEI is definitely making money, hand over fist. Word up!
(Unbridled confidence) The worst thing a business can do is hold on to the past and fall behind the times and I have complete faith in Christie Hefner to keep Playboy current and essential. There are myriad ways for a brand to make profit other than periodicals.
(A sober observation) A Playboy brand without a Playboy magazine is a hollow shell.
(Someone thinks it’s time) I agree. Paper will become very expensive. And all paper-based items, from money to books to magazines to newspapers will have to go.
(My sentiments: yadda-yadda) This prediction is as old as the computer, and shows no real signs of becoming reality. Computers are more efficient at generating paper (and paper waste) than people. You can easily take a paper copy of anything with you, that's not true for digital material.
Playboy is here to stay, I say. My first Playboy experience was at the tender age of 12, just a month shy of being 13. It was the December 1968 issue; Nat Hentoff interviewed Eldridge Cleaver. Yep, even then I was picking up Playboy for the articles … Honest! … okay, that’s not true. I may have been familiar with the name Eldridge Cleaver from the news, but what really caught my attention was Playmate of the Month, Cynthia Myers! She was the first woman I had ever seen nekkid—in print or otherwise and … I’ll just put it this way, she taught me the true meaning of self-gratification.
From then on, whenever an opportunity to get a hold of a copy of what came to be my favorite reading material—and this is no fabrication, reading is a passion so I started reading the articles—I took it and at the age of 13 I was finally allowed to have a paper route.
Mine was the early morning Milwaukee Sentinel, delivered usually before 6 a.m., between Forest Home Ave. to the South, Stack to the North; bordered on the east at 51st St and on the West by 60th St. that’s right, Southside baby!
The beauty of having that early morning paper route, I learned from my older brother who shall remain nameless (Rick still lives in Milwaukee), was that many of the stores around that area hadn’t brought in their overnight deliveries — which were usually still sitting outside the buildings. Okay, I feel safe in divulging this because A) We were kids; and B) It happened nearly 40 years ago and what are they gonna do? Whack our pee-pees?
So, if we got our routes finished early enough, we could swing by the local pharmacy — we called them drug stores back in the day — and see what was served on the platter. Now, my unnamed brother was a master at this: the magazines were bundled pretty tightly with the strapping stuff. But, if one was patient enough, the strap that ran horizontal around the bundle could be pulled to either the top or bottom and the magazine — one copy — could be then slid out of the bundle without making a mess of things, although we always ended up with damaged pages, but what the heck, we were kids!
Rick’s rule … err, his name is … err … Bob … (sorry bro) his rule was “Take only one.” If we took more, than the drug store owner could tell his bundle had been pilfered. If he didn’t notice, he’d count, notice one missing, and take it off the statement. The other rule: “Don’t do the same drug store every month.”So, that is how we managed to have a new Playboy every month before we were able to actually buy one legally.
Funny tangent: When Hugh Hefner first launched Playboy, there was a great cry of consternation throughout the land; our youth would be corrupted by the visage of nudity and the children of America, if tainted by this evil incarnation, would find themselves on the Road to Damnation, left to burn forever in the Eternal Fires of Hell. Every group of Christian women was out protesting at every store that dared sell the vile magazine. Our mother was a member of the Christian Mothers of St. Gregory the Great Parish. She and her fellow Christian Mothers spared no effort in trying to stop the distribution of Hefner’s contribution to the decline of Western civilization.
They failed.
It wasn’t until I was 19 and a member of the United States Marine Corps that I was finally able to purchase my first subscription. I’ll never forget the arrival of my inaugural issue as a paid subscriber: September 1975. Erica Jong (Fear of Flying) was the interview subject and Gretchen McNeese was her interrogator. But that’s not what I really remember about that issue. The Playmate that month was Mesina Miller.
This has run well over 1,600 words. Amazing how we can fill up a page with the excerpted dialogue of others — but what a pain with the spell-checker! The point of it all though is captured in some of those excerpts: Playboy is an American icon and changed the face of America significantly; and like all other major shifts of the social fabric of those decades long past, it is largely forgotten and taken for granted.
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