Playboy magazine to stop publishing pictures of naked women

[whatmeworry]

I haven't yet quite decided what I think about this, other than that I can absolutely see why the publishers have made the decision. I do feel it's an interesting and maybe slightly depressing sign of the times though - the world's most famous pornographic publication move away from porn not because it's socially unnaceptable but because it's just not worth doing in the face of so much competition.

http://gu.com/p/4d8mg?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Tapatalk

[Raza]

Playboy is hardly porn.

[whatmeworry]

Playboy is hardly porn.

Compared to the competition I agree, but on the other hand it kind of is using the "have millions of men masturbated to it" test

[Strange]

I know a guy who's a photographer and he ran two niche porn sites for years. One was for big girls and the other was for older girls. His sites were initially successful but after a while so many people were ripping off his content that the paid subscriptions started dwindling, eventually to a level that made it unfeasible to continue the sites. When it first began happening he hired a lawyer on retainer to go after the content thieves, and the scheister barely had time to eat & sleep he spent so much time tracking down offenders. My friend did manage to recover some $$$ from the smaller thieves. But the larger ones (publications and web sites you've most likely heard of) basically told him to piss off -- he could sue them if he liked but he'd bankrupt himself doing it and wouldn't recover a dime. I can sort of see why Playboy would feel that skin is no longer the profitable commodity it once was in the days before the interwebs.

[OhDark30]

Blimey. Now people really *will* be buying it for the articles

[Seriously]

but on the other hand

[Strange]

During its heyday (60s - 70s) when the mag was flush and its circulation was in the scarillions Playboy used to pay top dollar for articles, and routinely published fiction from some of the best writers of the era (Bellow, Updike, Fleming, Nabakov, Lessing, Koestler, Le Carre, Malamud, Singer, Sexton, et al). While most guys bought the mag for the skin if one was interested in the articles there was a pretty high grade of works on offer. Some of the interviews were top notch too.

[Seriously]

While most guys bought the mag for the skin if one was interested in the articles there was a pretty high grade of works on offer. Some of the interviews were top notch too.

......Allegedly

[Raza]

Compared to the competition I agree, but on the other hand it kind of is using the "have millions of men masturbated to it" test

If that's the test, then so is Maxim, Victoria's Secret, and the Sears catalogue.

[Raza]

Blimey. Now people really *will* be buying it for the articles

Truth is, back in the day, their articles were excellently written. The content suffered a few years ago when it became apparent to them that the publishing industry was near death. Magazines came in at half the thickness they used to be and the journalism was no longer as diligent or as nuanced.