Communication and sharing: Dot Com/Special Editions/Foreign Editions

Peggy Wilkins mozart@lib.uchicago.edu
Mon, 14 Jul 2003 22:37:46 -0500


I know that I had originally scheduled discussions of communication
and playboy.com for last week.  After further thought, and also seeing
that Special Editions was scheduled for this week, I thought it would
be more useful to consider all three of these topics as one larger
topic.  I will also discuss foreign editions since that is also
relevant to the larger context of communication.

Why talk about communication?  PEI is a large, diverse corporation
with many different facets, and they are physically spread out all
over the world.  The U.S. edition magazine has its corporate
headquarters in Chicago, and I believe Special Editions, foreign
editions, and playboy.com are also centralized there.  PLAYBOY Editor
In Chief Hugh M. Hefner is in Los Angeles, as is Playmate Promotions
and PLAYBOY Home Video.  The magazine has recently mandated a move of
its editorial staff to New York.  The many foreign editions have their
independent staffs and as far as I know they largely work on their
own, though some material may be shared with the U.S. edition.  This
is a highly complex situation, and such complex situations are
naturally prone to suffer from difficulties related to communication
of all the parts.  I think that a concentrated, deliberate effort to
share information at all levels, high and low, could result in some
tremendous advantages for all productions of PEI.

First of all I would like to note that there is some real evidence of
a lack of communication among the various parts.  Consider, for
instance, the Cyber Club and the magazine.  Here are two things that
immediately come to mind:

- It is well known that Lani Todd was scheduled to be a Cyber Girl of
the Week on cyber.playboy.com in September 2002.  Her pictures were
posted and remained in place for a day or two, then were suddenly
withdrawn without explanation.  It turned out that her CGOW pictures
had been requested to be pulled by the magazine, which had scheduled
her to be Miss December 2002 unbeknownst to the dot com staff.  (I may
not have these details precisely correct, but I believe this to be the
case.)  This resulted in much confusion among PLAYBOY's audience, and
was an ill conceived move considering that many Cyber Club members
felt unfairly cheated of Lani's CGOW pictures.  This action also made
PEI look clueless (which it certainly was in this case).  The decision
to pull the CGOW pictures was very publicly visible and resulted in
bad PR for PLAYBOY; it could have and should have been handled
better. Perhaps a way could have been found to take advantage of the
mistake and make it work for, rather than against, PEI.

- Cyber Club members have been complaining for some time about a
significant decrease in the size of Cyber Girl portfolios.  In the
past, each CGOW would get a minimum of 20 pictures (and sometimes as
many as 30), but for many months now most only get 15.  It turns out
that many recent CGOW pictorials come from Playmate tests.  Many
Playmate tests consist of the photographer trying to get a limited
number of poses, so even though there may be a large number of
photographs available to choose from, many of them are so similar as
to be nearly identical.  This situation results in not having enough
variety of poses to use in CGOW layouts, and so limits the number they
can use.  It also seems that when these test shots are done in Chicago
instead of LA, the photographers are more aware of the playboy.com/
cyber club connection and deliberately try to get more poses so they
can be used online.  If someone could communicate this fact to the
production teams in LA, they could also try to get more variety in
poses which could result in a larger number of photos in each CGOW
layout.  This simple effort would make the Cyber Club members much
happier and would forestall the public complaints that have been so
prevalent.

Both these examples speak strongly for there being more coordination
between the magazine and the dot com operations.  This is just the
beginning; there are many many more opportunities which could be
explored here that would result in great possibilities for everybody.
Let's look at some more possibilities.

- Special Editions <-> PLAYBOY magazine

I have been impressed with Special Editions ever since Jeff Cohen took
over this division circa 1995.  These twice monthly publications have
consistently top quality photography and graphic design/layout, and
there is ample evidence that the staff both looks for constructive
feedback and uses it to improve their publications on a regular basis.
They are willing to experiment.  They have a strong and impressive
stable of regular, popular models as well as a steady influx of new
ones.  They employ a wider variety of photographers than the magazine
uses.  The photographic style in these editions is quite different
from that used in the magazine; part of this must be the diversity of
photographers, but I think that editorial choice must also play a
large part here.  Special Editions clearly has a top rate graphic
design staff.  I would like to see some of this SE expertise
(photographers, layout/design, photographic style, willingness to
experiment) influence the photography and layout that appears in the
magazine.  Can the SE staff be trained to use the 8x10 cameras used
for centerfold photography?  I don't see why not, they are clearly
first rate professionals who can adapt to changing circumstances, and
they are well versed in photographic techniques.  Why not also employ
some of the more modern-looking sets used in SE's for centerfolds?
Published comments about Playmate photography often mention the old
fashioned look of PLAYBOY's photographic style.  The SE photographs do
appear more modern, yet they still are entirely consistent with the
pin-up tradition that has always been the hallmark of the
sophisticated and elegant PLAYBOY style.

In summary, take advantage of the tremendous talent and expertise of
the SE staff to work for the magazine.  Experiments in this area could
really pay off.  Maybe there are even some new opportunities to share
material or photographers between these two divisions that haven't yet
been realized.  The division between the magazine and SE enterprises
seems an unneccessarily artificial one; they could be brought closer
together to realize advantages on both sides.

- Foreign editions <-> U.S. edition

According to playboy.com, PLAYBOY currently has 19 international
editions.  Just think of the wealth and diversity of talent employed
in these editions -- often they put out a magazine that, while still
consistent with the PLAYBOY ideals, is quite different from the U.S.
edition.  It would be wonderful if PLAYBOY could pull design and
editorial ideas from these many editions -- whether directly, or
indirectly as inspiration.  Some that I have seen look quite slick,
and quite a bit more up-to-date than the current PLAYBOY -- and I
don't mean just having more photographs (though many of them do), or
more sidebars.  There are often some different approaches to layout
and design that PLAYBOY could profit from here, using them either as
direct models or as fodder for ideas they could develop.  For
instance, the interviews in some foreign editions are quite
differently illustrated than the traditional U.S. edition interview,
and some of them look very slick and attractive.  Why not consider
some of these layouts?  Why not take some of the most beautifully
conceived and illustrated cartoons, and translate them to English?
I'll bet there are some good regularly contributing foreign
cartoonists to add to PLAYBOY's repertoire.

The same can be said of photography, cover design, and Playmate
selection.  There are many sources of fresh ideas that could be taken
from this large and diverse pool.

- playboy.com <-> its foreign sisters

To expand on the above idea, why not share content between the
U.S. Cyber Club and some of PLAYBOY's foreign pay web sites?  At least
a couple of these sites are now in operation, and they have Cyber
Girls and feature their own native Playmates just like the U.S. Cyber
Club does.  Not only would this result in more content for all
participating parties, which would make everyone happy, but there are
further possibilities as well.  For instance, if the Cyber Club
started featuring foreign Playmate photography, this could be utilized
as a test for a different style of photography and a different type of
model.  In other words, if response is good to a particular model
type, or to a particular style of photography, this information could
then feed back into the U.S. magazine such that they could add this to
their own photography repertoire.  Maybe there will be a good response
to outdoor, natural photography; then send Mr. Freytag, Mr. Wayda, et
al to more outdoor assignments.  This is a ready, cheap way to get
some more data on audience preferences without putting a lot of effort
into experimental production here in the U.S.  The material already
exists, and so (assuming it is up to technical requirements) could and
should be used in this way.

Similarly, maybe there are some good online layout/design ideas on a
foreign site that could be used or expanded on.

In summary, there are many opportunities for bringing together
separate areas, not only to improve existing problems, but to work to
the benefit of all.  With the right coordinator(s), this could really
work out well.

Peggy Wilkins
mozart@lib.uchicago.edu