Playboy magazine stops printing due to coronavirus outbreak
Playboy has said it will shut down its print operation for the rest of the year due to the outbreak of coronavirus.
The US periodical, one of the world’s most famous magazines, said its spring issue — which hits newsstands this week — will be its last of 2020.
In an open letter posted online, Playboy Enterprises chief executive Ben Kohn said the company had been discussing overhauling its print output for some time, but the decision had been accelerated by the pandemic.
“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 US print product to better suit what consumers want today, and how to utilise our industry-leading content production capabilities to engage in a cultural conversation each and every day, rather than just every three months,” he wrote.
The iconic bunny mag will instead move to a digital-first publishing schedule for all of its content, including the Playboy Interview.
The publisher said it will launch a range of new print products — including special editions, partnerships and collections — alongside its digital offering from next year.
“Print is how we began and print will always be a part of who we are,” Kohn said.
Playboy magazine was founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and the brand has since expanded into an empire that includes TV shows, nightclubs and merchandise.
The lifestyle magazine has printed stories by some of the world’s most famous writers, including Ian Fleming, PG Wodehouse and Margaret Atwood.
But it has attracted controversy for its portrayal of women — particularly through its portrayal of full-front nudity.
In recent years the magazine has attempted to shift its focus away from its print offering amid changing reader habits that have put a squeeze on the wider publishing industry.
Playboy said it has gained over 4m new Instagram followers in the past 12 months and has grown its digital video subscriptions by almost 30 per cent.