Playboy50 digest, Vol 1 #15 - 1 msg

[RBinPerson@aol.com]

Re:  Challenges

Hi all--
I'm not really sure how to respond to this one.  The thing is, I don't want 
Playboy to change at all.  Albeit, I'm in my late 40s and I grew up with 
"classic" Playboy-- that of the 60s, the 70s, and early 80s.  I've stuck with 
Playboy to the present day, even though the Playmates have become younger and 
younger (or is it just me that's become older and older? !  :) :)  )  and the 
annual music poll more frequently mentions bands and artists I've never heard 
of or could care less about.  

In my first posting to this forum, I went into my history with Playboy and 
why it appealed to me.  There was a time when Playboy held a lot of mystique 
because it was the only men's magazine that mattered.  In the 60s, Playboy 
meant sex, of course, but it also meant sophistication, show biz, and 
liberalism.  

Today, it doesn't mean that.  It seems that today Playboy still means sex and 
maybe show biz, but it's lost a lot of the sophistication and liberalism.  
Mostly it's lost the mystique.  

How do they get it back?  

I don't know.  I don't think "Maxim"-izing it is the answer.  I don't think 
that doing away with the nudity (Heaven forbid!!!) is the answer.  I don't 
think more celebrity pictorials is the answer.  

In order to answer the question, I think we would need to be privy to some of 
the financial truths about the company.  What product lines are the most 
successful?  Playboy TV?  The home video division?  The Special Editions?  
The magazine?  The online cyberclub?  Clothing?  Merchandise?  If the 
television and video divisions are more successful than the magazine, that 
tells us something.  If the magazine is still the flagship product, then that 
tells us something else.  *Does* the competition sell more magazines?  (The 
Maxims, Stuffs, etc.)  What about Penthouse?  How's it doing these days?  If 
so, what is the competition doing that Playboy is not?

All along, Playboy was primarily targeted to the college-age male, give or 
take a few years.  Has Playboy gone to this group and surveyed them?  Have 
they asked, "What would you want in a magazine like Playboy to keep you 
interested in it enough to become a long-time reader/subscriber?"  There's a 
lot to be said for some market research.  Perhaps Playboy has done this, I 
really don't know.  

I said at the beginning of this missive that I don't want Playboy to change.  
But I'm an old fart now.  Playboy represents to me something of my own past 
that I have clung to all these years.  Gretchen's comment that there are 
rumors that nudity will be done away with just terrifies me!  It wouldn't be 
Playboy anymore.  I, for one, would stop buying the magazine if that 
happened.  

Everyone on the PML and on this list are a teeny-weeny minority of people 
that call themselves Playboy fans.  What about the rest of the world?  Most 
people can't name which Playmate appeared when and they couldn't care less.  
The mystique of Hugh Hefner, the man, fascinates some of the population, but 
what happens when he's gone?  Will "Playboy" mean anything then?  

I realize I'm asking more questions than I'm answering.  The problem is that 
I don't know the answers.  

I'm going to see Hef in a couple of weeks.  If I get a chance to have a 
one-on-one talk, I'm going to bring all this up and see what he has to say.

Raymond