Page 31 - atoday
P. 31
PEIPLE & ARTS A31
Thursday 15 October 2015
Less skin: Playboy to stop running pictures of nude women
JOHN ROGERS eran contributors, celebrity
Associated Press interviewer David Rensin,
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Play- praised the move away
boy is about to find out from full nudity as some-
how many people really do thing Playboy should have
read the magazine for the done years ago.
articles. “It’s a good business move.
The magazine that helped The magazine’s got to keep
usher in the sexual revolu- up with the times,” said
tion in the 1950s and ‘60s Rensin, whose long list of
by bringing nudity into interview subjects includes
America’s living rooms — or Bill Gates, Jerry Seinfeld,
at least its sock drawers — Martin Scorsese and, more
announced this week that recently, Lena Dunham
it will no longer run photos and Scarlett Johansson.
of naked women.
Playboy has seen its circu- In this Nov. 15, 2007 photo, Hugh Hefner smiles while signing copies of the Playboy calendar and For every newsmaker or
lation plunge in recent de- Playboy Cover To Cover: The 50’s DVD box set in Los Angeles. celebrity who said yes to
cades as it has fallen victim a Playboy interview, Ren-
to some of the very forces it Associated Press sin told The Associated
helped set in motion. First it Press on Tuesday, there
had to deal with competi- This images released by Play- This image released by Play- This image released by Play- were others who said no
tion from more sexually ex- boy show Darine Stern on the boy shows Kate Moss on the boy shows Playmate of the because they didn’t want
plicit magazines like Pent- cover of the October 1971 is- cover of the January/February Year Anna Nicole Smith on the their words to appear next
house and Hustler. Now the sue of the gentleman’s maga- 2014 60th anniversary issue of cover of the June 1993 issue of to or near photographs of
Internet is awash in high- zine. the gentleman’s magazine. the gentleman’s magazine. naked women.
definition porn. The Times said taking full
Associated Press Associated Press Associated Press nudity out of the magazine
Playboy has decided that was something the 89-year-
the answer is less skin, not old Hugh Hefner signed off
more. on when Playboy editor
“You’re now one click Cory Jones ran the idea by
away from every sex act him.
imaginable for free. And so “The political and sexual
it’s just passé at this junc- climate of 1953, the year
ture,” Playboy Enterprises Hugh Hefner introduced
CEO Scott Flanders told The Playboy to the world, bears
New York Times. almost no resemblance to
Starting in March, Playboy’s today,” Flanders said in a
print edition will still feature statement. “We are more
women in sexy, provoca- free to express ourselves
tive poses, but they will no politically, sexually and cul-
longer be fully nude. It will turally today, and that’s in
become more like Esquire large part thanks to Hef’s
and other magazines with heroic mission to expand
PG-13-type pictures. those freedoms.”
The Times said the mag-
azine has not decided The shift will be accompa-
whether to continue hav-
ing a centerfold. nied by other changes in
Playboy became famous
for publishing nude photos the magazine, including
of some of the world’s most
famous women. Marilyn from Playboy’s website in ing a fourfold increase in such writers as John Up- a slightly larger size and
Monroe was its first center- August 2014. That helped monthly unique visitors. dike, Jack Kerouac, Nor-
fold, 62 years ago. make the site safer for work During Playboy’s print hey- man Mailer, Ray Bradbury heavier, higher-quality
Although the change rep- and public places, and en- day, readers could plausi- and Joseph Heller, and
resents a major shift for the abled Playboy to get onto bly, if not always convinc- interviewed the likes of paper meant to give the
magazine, it is also the lat- Facebook, Twitter and oth- ingly, claim they read it for Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro,
est step away from full nu- er platforms. its fiction, journalism and Malcolm X, Muhammad magazine a more collect-
dity, which was banned The magazine has said its interviews. Ali, Miles Davis, Frank Sina-
online audience soared tra and Bob Dylan. ible feel.
with that move, averag- It published the work of One of the magazine’s vet-
Playboy’s print circulation,
measured at 5.6 million in
1975, is now about 800,000,
according to Alliance for
Audited Media, the Times
reported.q
