Michael Rotellini
Mrotell1@uwyo.edu
I’ll start this article off by saying I’m one person who has never looked at a Playboy. I have never seen the pictures, read the articles or even thought about picking one up.
I have never cared for that type of magazine and honestly, I still don’t.
Even as an outsider to the publication, I can still realize when I see the end of an era of what was such a popular magazine in its time. One could make the argument that it was industry leader.
With Playboy ending its staple of nudity in its magazines, it’s likely trying to open up to a broader audience and even highlight some of the other features in its magazine.
There still will be women in suggestive poses. This is obviously not uncommon when you look on any magazine stand or rack that hosts other magazines using the same ploy like GQ, Maxim and the like. Playboy is simply just trying to adapt to times where internet is king and there subscriber base is losing out.
Think about it- if you wanted to find nude pictures of women, would you buy a magazine or would you just go on the internet and turn Google safe search off for free? The niche that Playboy had in the world is decreasing because of the way we are able to get things now.
This isn’t all bad. The way the market works forces businesses to adapt and Playboy has been able to survive for many decades and face new obstacles, but it’s an opportunity to grow the magazine in a different light.
One phrase that I always heard in cases for justifying looking through a Playboy magazine was “I just read it for the article.” Now that statement is going to become a lot more honest.
Many different media outlets has praised the works of the writers at Playboy and believe that without the nudity the magazine will flourish with more eyes on the actual writing.
The brand is having to redefine itself just to stay relevant and on the stands and writing seems to be one of its strongest points going into an uncertain future.
Once a captain of its industry for decades, the magazine will look a lot different from when it did even a year ago and no one knows how it is going to turn out in the long run, leaving its strategy of feeding basic animalistic instincts and moving on to a more conservative publication.
If anything, we should look at this as a symbol for the times we are living in.
What worked in the past isn’t what we should see as set in stone in the future. Times change because people change, technology changes and everything about a market can change. To see such a recognizable company changing only confirms that the era where print pornography was king is now dead.
I’m not sad about this. I’m excited about it because the 60’s were great, the 70’s were fun, but as we continue to go farther in time, so do our capabilities. The fact that some things that were icons in the past are being paved over allows for new icons and greater possibilities.
Playboy will be totally different from where it was back in the day, but in my opinion you might not be ashamed to say you read it “just for the articles.”
