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Playboy to stop publishing nude photos

By Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Oct 13, 2015

Do people really read Playboy for the articles? Well, we're about to find out.

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According to The New York Times, the iconic men's magazine will no longer publish nude photos of women when its redesign launches in March. The reason? Thanks to the ubiquity of online pornography, nudity – a staple of the magazine since its launch in 1953 – is "just so passe at this juncture," Scott Flanders, Playboy's chief executive, told the Times. As a result, Playboy's circulation has fallen to 800,000, down from 5.6 million 40 years ago.

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The revamped magazine will still feature racy, "PG-13" images of women, including a Playmate of the Month, said Cory Jones, Playboy's chief content officer. It also will introduce a sex column by a "sex-positive" woman, expand its liquor coverage and focus more on interviews, fiction and investigative journalism.

Executives hope the changes will attract more millennials, the Times reports. The strategy seems to have worked for the magazine's website: After ditching nudes online last year, Playboy.com reportedly logged about 16 million visitors monthly – up from 4 million – and the average reader's age fell to about 30.

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