Playboy is shuttering its print magazine.
The men’s magazine, launched at the end of 1953 by famed founder Hugh Hefner, said Wednesday that the economic disruptions from COVID-19, or coronavirus, were too much for its already strained print operations to bear, WWD can first report.
“Last week, as the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic to content production and the supply chain became clearer and clearer, we were forced to accelerate a conversation we’ve been having internally: the question of how to transform our U.S. print product,” Ben Kohn, ceo of Playboy Enterprises, wrote in an open letter posted to Medium. “We have decided that our Spring 2020 Issue, which arrives on U.S. newsstands and as a digital download this week, will be our final printed publication for the year in the U.S.”
Playboy will now operate on a “digital first publishing schedule,” the company said, including its famed Playmate shoots. But it does intend to bring some kind of a print product back into the fold next year, Kohn said in his note. Likely an occasional special edition.
“It’s no surprise that media consumption habits have been changing for some time – and while the stories we produce and the artwork we showcase
The men’s magazine, launched at the end of 1953 by famed founder Hugh Hefner, said Wednesday that the economic disruptions from COVID-19, or coronavirus, were too much for its already strained print operations to bear, WWD can first report.
“Last week, as the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic to content production and the supply chain became clearer and clearer, we were forced to accelerate a conversation we’ve been having internally: the question of how to transform our U.S. print product,” Ben Kohn, ceo of Playboy Enterprises, wrote in an open letter posted to Medium. “We have decided that our Spring 2020 Issue, which arrives on U.S. newsstands and as a digital download this week, will be our final printed publication for the year in the U.S.”
Playboy will now operate on a “digital first publishing schedule,” the company said, including its famed Playmate shoots. But it does intend to bring some kind of a print product back into the fold next year, Kohn said in his note. Likely an occasional special edition.
“It’s no surprise that media consumption habits have been changing for some time – and while the stories we produce and the artwork we showcase