59-469: Playboy (stylized in all caps) is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and online since 2020. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ 1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. Known for its centerfolds of nude and semi-nude models ( Playmates ), Playboy played an important role in the sexual revolution and remains one of
118-473: A feuilleton . The Count of Monte Cristo was stretched out to 139 instalments. Eugène Sue's serial novel Le Juif errant increased circulation of Le Constitutionnel from 3,600 to 25,000. Production in book form soon followed and serialisation was one of the main reasons that nineteenth-century novels were so long. Authors and publishers kept the story going if it was successful since authors were paid by line and by episode. Gustave Flaubert 's Madame Bovary
177-662: A reverse merger deal with Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp.—a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). In February 2021, the stock of a combined company, PLBY Group, began trading on the Nasdaq exchange as "PLBY". In 1971, Playboy had a circulation rate base of seven million, which was its high point. The best-selling individual issue was the November 1972 edition, which sold 7,161,561 copies. One-quarter of all American college men were buying or subscribing to
236-434: A serial is a printing or publishing format by which a single larger work , often a work of narrative fiction , is published in smaller, sequential instalments. The instalments are also known as numbers , parts , fascicules or fascicles , and may be released either as separate publications or within sequential issues of a periodical publication , such as a magazine or newspaper. Serialisation can also begin with
295-529: A bunny. Joyful, joking. Consider the girl we made popular: the Playmate of the Month . She is never sophisticated, a girl you cannot really have. She is a young, healthy, simple girl - the girl next door ... we are not interested in the mysterious, difficult woman, the femme fatale , who wears elegant underwear, with lace, and she is sad, and somehow mentally filthy. The Playboy girl has no lace, no underwear, she
354-492: A cover photo representing gender and sexual fluidity. In March 2020, Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy Enterprises, announced that the spring 2020 issue would be the last regularly scheduled printed issue and that the magazine would publish its content online. The decision to close the print edition was attributed in part to the COVID-19 pandemic , which interfered with the distribution of the magazine. In autumn 2020, Playboy announced
413-499: A former cartoonist, reportedly resisted dropping the cartoons more than the nudity, but ultimately obliged. Playboy ' s plans were to market itself as a competitor to Vanity Fair , as opposed to more traditional competitors GQ and Maxim . Playboy announced in February 2017, however, that the dropping of nudity had been a mistake. Furthermore, for its March/April issue, it reestablished some of its franchises, including
472-474: A less inappropriate image in India and China, where the brand is a popular item on apparel and thus generates significant revenue. Other changes to the magazine included ending the popular jokes section and the various cartoons that appeared throughout the magazine. The redesign eliminated the use of jump copy (articles continuing on non-consecutive pages), eliminating most of the space for cartoons. Hefner, himself
531-615: A liberal editorial stance, although it often interviews conservative celebrities. After a year-long removal of most nude photos in Playboy magazine, the March–April 2017 issue brought back nudity. By spring 1953, Hugh Hefner—a 1949 University of Illinois psychology graduate who had worked in Chicago for Esquire magazine writing promotional copy; Publisher's Development Corporation in sales and marketing; and Children's Activities magazine as circulation promotions manager—had planned out
590-485: A new name, considering "Top Hat", "Gentleman", "Sir'", "Satyr", "Pan", and "Bachelor" before Sellers suggested "Playboy". Published in December 1953, the first issue was undated, as Hefner was unsure there would be a second. He produced it in his Hyde Park kitchen. The first centerfold was Marilyn Monroe , although the picture used initially was taken for a calendar rather than for Playboy . Hefner chose what he deemed
649-761: A regular display of full-page color cartoons, it became a showcase for cartoonists such as Jack Cole , Eldon Dedini , Jules Feiffer , Harvey Kurtzman , Shel Silverstein , Doug Sneyd , Erich Sokol, Roy Raymonde , Gahan Wilson , and Rowland B. Wilson . Art Paul designed the bunny logo. Leroy Neiman drew the Femlin characters for Playboy jokes. Patrick Nagel painted the headers for Playboy Forum and other sections. Playboy features monthly interviews of public figures, such as artists, architects, economists, composers, conductors, film directors, journalists, novelists, playwrights, religious figures, politicians, athletes, and race car drivers. The magazine generally reflects
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#1732772458482708-545: A serial format, for example, Alan Moore's Watchmen . The rise of fan fiction on the internet also follows a serial fiction style of publication, as seen on websites such as FanFiction.Net and Archive of Our Own (AO3) . Aspiring authors have also used the web to publish free-to-read works in serialised format on their own websites as well as web-based communities such as LiveJournal , Fictionpress.com, fictionhub, Kindle Vella and Wattpad . Many of these books receive as many readers as successful novels; some have received
767-416: A single short story that is subsequently turned into a series. Historically, such series have been published in periodicals. Popular short-story series are often published together in book form as collections. The growth of moveable type in the 17th century prompted episodic and often disconnected narratives such as L'Astrée and Le Grand Cyrus . At that time, books remained a premium item, so to reduce
826-413: A spin-off of Playboy ) and Gallery in the 1970s; later from pornographic videos ; and more recently from lad mags such as Maxim , FHM , and Stuff . In response, Playboy attempted to re-assert its hold on the 18–35-year-old male demographic through slight changes to the content and focusing on issues and personalities more appropriate to its audience—such as hip-hop artists being featured in
885-475: A volume, and it is in the magazine that the best novelist always appears first." Among the American writers who wrote in serial form were Henry James and Herman Melville . A large part of the appeal for writers at the time was the broad audiences that serialisation could reach, which would then grow their following for published works. One of the first significant American works to be released in serial format
944-676: A year's time in 1894–95 and serialised only after completion, in 1895–96). In addition, works in late Qing dynasty China had been serialised. The Nine-tailed Turtle was serialised from 1906 to 1910. Bizarre Happenings Eyewitnessed over Two Decades was serialised in Xin Xiaoshuo (T: 新小說, S: 新小说, P: Xīn Xiǎoshuō ; W: Hsin Hsiao-shuo ; "New Fiction"), a magazine by Liang Qichao . The first half of Officialdom Unmasked appeared in instalments of Shanghai Shijie Fanhua Bao , serialised there from April 1903 to June 1905. With
1003-519: Is Uncle Tom's Cabin , by Harriet Beecher Stowe , which was published over a 40-week period by The National Era , an abolitionist periodical, starting with the June 5, 1851 issue. Serialisation was so standard in American literature that authors from that era often built instalment structure into their creative process. James, for example, often had his works divided into multi-part segments of similar length. The consumption of fiction during that time
1062-487: Is naked, well washed with soap and water, and she is happy. The jaunty rabbit quickly became a popular symbol of extroverted male culture, becoming a lucrative source of merchandizing revenue for the company. In the 1950s, it was adopted as the military aircraft insignia for the US Navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Four (VX-4). Besides its centerfold, a major part of Playboy for much of its existence has been
1121-410: Is the field of journalism that provides news and opinion, often in an entertaining tone, regarding goods and services used by consumers in their everyday life. Lifestyle journalism covers travel, fashion, fitness, leisure, food, and arts, among other topics. This journalism -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Serial (literature) In literature ,
1180-558: Is widely considered to have established the viability and appeal of the serialised format within periodical literature. During that era, the line between "quality" and "commercial" literature was not distinct. Other famous writers who wrote serial literature for popular magazines were Wilkie Collins , inventor of the detective novel with The Moonstone ; Anthony Trollope , many of whose novels were published in serial form in Cornhill magazine; and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , who created
1239-562: The Playboy Interview, an extensive (usually several-thousand-word) discussion between a publicly known individual and an interviewer. Writer Alex Haley served as a Playboy interviewer on a few occasions; one of his interviews was with Martin Luther King Jr. ; he also interviewed Malcolm X and American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell . The magazine interviewed then-presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in
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#17327724584821298-645: The Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles) for $ 18 m ($ 10 m less than the reported asking price) to another American, Daren Metropoulos, the President and co-owner of Pabst Blue Ribbon , and that due to significant losses in the company's value (down from $ 1 billion in 2000 to $ 84 million in 2009), the Playboy publishing empire was for sale for $ 300 million. In December 2009, the publication schedule
1357-606: The Sherlock Holmes stories originally for serialisation in The Strand magazine. While American periodicals first syndicated British writers, over time they drew from a growing base of domestic authors. The rise of the periodicals like Harper's and the Atlantic Monthly grew in symbiotic tandem with American literary talent. The magazines nurtured and provided economic sustainability for writers, while
1416-497: The " Playboy Interview". In February 1974, Ratna Assan became the first women of Indonesian descent to be featured, shortly after a positively received role in the film Papillon (1973). Christie Hefner , daughter of founder Hugh Hefner, joined Playboy in 1975 and became head of the company in 1988. She announced in December 2008 that she would be stepping down from leading the company, effective in January 2009. She said that
1475-571: The "P" in Playboy had stars printed in or around the letter. Urban legend stated that this was either a rating that Hefner gave to the Playmate according to how attractive she was, the number of times that Hefner had slept with her, or how good she was in bed. In truth, stars, between zero and 12, indicated the domestic or international advertising region for that printing. In the 1960s, the magazine added "The Playboy Philosophy" column. Early topics included gay rights, women's rights, censorship, and
1534-417: The "sexiest" image, a previously unused nude study of Monroe stretched with an upraised arm on a red velvet background with closed eyes and mouth open. The heavy promotion centered on Monroe's nudity on the already-famous calendar, together with the teasers in marketing, made the new Playboy magazine a success. The first issue sold out in weeks. Known circulation was 53,991. The cover price was 50¢. Copies of
1593-548: The Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) has published a braille edition of Playboy since 1970. The braille version includes all the written words in the non-braille magazine, but no pictorial representations. Congress cut off funding for the braille magazine translation in 1985, but U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan reversed the decision on First Amendment grounds. Europe North America Oceania South America Lifestyle journalism Lifestyle journalism
1652-957: The First Amendment. Playboy was an early proponent of cannabis reform and provided founding support to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in 1970. From 1966 to 1976, Robie Macauley was the fiction editor at Playboy . During this period the magazine published fiction by Saul Bellow , Seán Ó Faoláin , John Updike , James Dickey , John Cheever , Doris Lessing , Joyce Carol Oates , Vladimir Nabokov , Michael Crichton , John le Carré , Irwin Shaw , Jean Shepherd , Arthur Koestler , Isaac Bashevis Singer , Bernard Malamud , John Irving , Anne Sexton , Nadine Gordimer , Kurt Vonnegut and J. P. Donleavy , as well as poetry by Yevgeny Yevtushenko . In 1968, at
1711-497: The July/August 2018 issue a reader asked if the print magazine would discontinue, and Playboy responded that it was not going anywhere. Following Hefner's death and his family's financial stake in the company, the magazine changed direction. In 2019, Playboy was relaunched as a quarterly publication without adverts. Topics covered included an interview with Tarana Burke , a profile of Pete Buttigieg , coverage of BDSM , and
1770-486: The November 1976 issue, in which he stated "I've committed adultery in my heart many times." David Sheff 's interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono appeared in the January 1981 issue, which was on newsstands at the time of Lennon's murder; the interview was later published in book format. Another interview-type section, entitled "20Q" (a play on the game of Twenty Questions ), was added in October 1978. Cheryl Tiegs
1829-607: The Playboy Philosophy and Party Jokes, but dropped the subtitle "Entertainment for Men", inasmuch as gender roles have evolved. The company's chief creative officer made the announcement on Twitter with the hashtag #NakedIsNormal. In early 2018, and according to Jim Puzzanghera of the Los Angeles Times , Playboy was reportedly "considering killing the print magazine", as the publication "has lost as much as $ 7 million annually in recent years". However, in
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1888-692: The Road in The New York Times Magazine in 2007. The emergence of the World Wide Web prompted some authors to revise a serial format. Stephen King experimented with The Green Mile (1996) and, less successfully, with the uncompleted The Plant in 2000. Michel Faber allowed The Guardian to serialise his novel The Crimson Petal and the White . In 2005, Orson Scott Card serialised his out-of-print novel Hot Sleep in
1947-465: The United States. The 1975 average circulation was 5.6 million; by 1981, it was 5.2 million and by 1982 down to 4.9 million. Its decline continued in later decades and reached about 800,000 copies per issue in late 2015, and 400,000 copies by December 2017. In 1970, Playboy became the first gentleman's magazine printed in braille . It is also one of the few magazines whose microfilm format
2006-672: The Vanities , about contemporary New York City, ran in 27 parts in Rolling Stone , partially inspired by the model of Dickens. The magazine paid $ 200,000 for his work, but Wolfe heavily revised the work before publication as a standalone novel. Alexander McCall Smith , author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, experimented in 2004 with publishing his novel 44 Scotland Street in instalments every weekday in The Scotsman . Michael Chabon serialised Gentlemen of
2065-739: The author's success, as audience appetite created a demand for further instalments. In the German-speaking countries , the serialised novel was widely popularised by the weekly family magazine Die Gartenlaube , which reached a circulation of 382,000 by 1875. In Russia, The Russian Messenger serialised Leo Tolstoy 's Anna Karenina from 1873 to 1877 and Fyodor Dostoevsky 's The Brothers Karamazov from 1879 to 1880. In Poland, Bolesław Prus wrote several serialised novels: The Outpost (1885–86), The Doll (1887–89), The New Woman (1890–93), and his sole historical novel , Pharaoh (the latter, exceptionally, written entire over
2124-413: The decision. The redesigned Playboy , however, would still feature a Playmate of the Month and pictures of women. Still, they would be rated as not appropriate for children under 13. The move would not affect PlayboyPlus.com (which features nudity at a paid subscription). Josh Horwitz of Quartz argued that the motivation for the decision to remove nudity from the magazine was to give Playboy Licensing
2183-410: The election of Barack Obama as the next President had inspired her to give more time to charitable work and that the decision to step down was her own. "Just as this country is embracing change in the form of new leadership, I have decided that now is the time to make changes in my own life as well", she said. Hefner was succeeded by company director and media veteran Jerome H. Kern as interim CEO, who
2242-496: The elements of his magazine, that he would call Stag Party . He formed HMH Publishing Corporation, and recruited his friend Eldon Sellers to find investors. Hefner eventually raised just over $ 8,000, including from his brother and mother. However, the publisher of an unrelated men's adventure magazine, Stag , contacted Hefner and informed him it would file suit to protect their trademark if he were to launch his magazine with that name. Hefner, his wife Millie, and Sellers met to seek
2301-564: The feminist Miss America protest , symbolically feminine products were thrown into a "Freedom Trash Can". These included copies of Playboy and Cosmopolitan magazines. One of the key pamphlets produced by the protesters was "No More Miss America!", by Robin Morgan , which listed ten characteristics of the Miss America pageant that the authors believed degraded women; it compared the pageant to Playboy ' s centerfold as sisters under
2360-458: The first issue in mint to near-mint condition sold for over $ 5,000 in 2002. The novel Fahrenheit 451 , by Ray Bradbury , was published in 1953 and serialized in the March, April and May 1954 issues of Playboy . An urban legend started about Hefner and the Playmate of the Month because of markings on the front covers of the magazine. From 1955 to 1979 (except for a six-month gap in 1976),
2419-494: The first issue of his online magazine, InterGalactic Medicine Show . In 2008 McCall Smith wrote a serialised online novel Corduroy Mansions , with the audio edition read by Andrew Sachs made available at the same pace as the daily publication. In 2011, pseudonymous author Wildbow published Worm , which remains one of the most popular web serials of all time. Conversely, graphic novels became more popular in this period containing stories that were originally published in
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2478-412: The magazine every month. On the cover was model Pam Rawlings, photographed by Rowland Scherman . Perhaps coincidentally, a cropped image of the issue's centerfold (which featured Lena Söderberg ) became a de facto standard image for testing image processing algorithms. It is known simply as the " Lenna " (also "Lena") image in that field. In 1972, Playboy was the ninth highest circulation magazine in
2537-434: The magazine. On July 15, Penthouse owner FriendFinder Networks Inc. offered $ 210 million (the company is valued at $ 185 million). However, Hefner, who already owned 70 percent of voting stock, did not want to sell. In January 2011, the publisher of Playboy magazine agreed to an offer by Hefner to take the company private for $ 6.15 per share, an 18 percent premium over the price of the last previous day of trading. The buyout
2596-599: The most popular was its annual ranking of the top "party schools" among all U.S. universities and colleges. In 2009, the magazine used five criteria—bikini, brains, campus, sex, and sports—to develop its list. The top-ranked party school by Playboy for 2009 was the University of Miami . In June 2009, the magazine reduced its publication schedule to 11 yearly issues, with a combined July/August issue. On August 11, 2009, London's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that Hugh Hefner had sold his English manor house (next door to
2655-403: The price and expand the market, publishers produced large works in lower-cost instalments called fascicles. These had the added attraction of allowing a publisher to gauge the popularity of a work without incurring the expense of a substantial print run of bound volumes: if the work was not a success, no bound volumes needed to be prepared. If, on the other hand, the serialised book sold well, it
2714-593: The rabbit for its "humorous sexual connotation" and because the image was "frisky and playful". In an interview, Hefner explained his choice of a rabbit as Playboy ' s logo to the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci : The rabbit, the bunny, in America has a sexual meaning; and I chose it because it's a fresh animal, shy, vivacious, jumping - sexy. First it smells you then it escapes, then it comes back, and you feel like caressing it, playing with it. A girl resembles
2773-931: The rise of broadcast—both radio and television series —in the first half of the 20th century, printed periodical fiction began a slow decline as newspapers and magazines shifted their focus from entertainment to information and news. However, some serialisation of novels in periodicals continued, with mixed success. The first several books in the Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin appeared from 1978 as regular instalments in San Francisco newspapers. Similar serial novels ran in other city newspapers, such as The Serial (1976; Marin County ), Tangled Lives (Boston), Bagtime (Chicago), and Federal Triangle (Washington, D.C.). Starting in 1984, Tom Wolfe 's The Bonfire of
2832-401: The skin, describing this as "The Unbeatable Madonna–Whore Combination". Macauley contributed all of the popular Ribald Classics series published between January 1978 and March 1984. After reaching its peak in the 1970s, Playboy saw a decline in circulation and cultural relevance due to competition in the field it founded—first from Penthouse , then from Oui (which was published as
2891-527: The world's best-known brands, with a presence in nearly every medium. In addition to the flagship magazine in the United States, special nation-specific versions of Playboy are published worldwide, including those by licensees, such as Dirk Steenekamp's DHS Media Group. The magazine has a long history of publishing short stories by novelists such as Arthur C. Clarke , Ian Fleming , Vladimir Nabokov , Saul Bellow , Chuck Palahniuk , P. G. Wodehouse , Roald Dahl , Haruki Murakami , and Margaret Atwood . With
2950-463: The writers helped grow the periodicals' circulation base. During the late 19th century, those that were considered the best American writers first published their work in serial form and then only later in a completed volume format. As a piece in Scribner's Monthly explained in 1878, "Now it is the second or third rate novelist who cannot get publication in a magazine, and is obliged to publish in
3009-548: The years. This list is only a small portion of those who have posed. Some of them are: Film: Music: Sports: Television: The success of Playboy magazine has led PEI to market other versions of the magazine, the Special Edition s (formerly called Newsstand Special s), such as Playboy's College Girls and Playboy's Book of Lingerie , as well as the Playboy video collection. The National Library Service for
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#17327724584823068-435: Was a good bet that bound volumes would sell well, too. Serialised fiction surged in popularity during Britain's Victorian era , due to a combination of the rise of literacy, technological advances in printing, and improved economics of distribution. Most Victorian novels first appeared as instalments in monthly or weekly periodicals. The wild success of Charles Dickens 's The Pickwick Papers , first published in 1836,
3127-643: Was completed in March 2011. This is what I always intended Playboy Magazine to look like. — Hugh Hefner , when asked about ending nudity in Playboy In October 2015, Playboy announced the magazine would no longer feature full-frontal nudity beginning with the March 2016 issue. Company CEO Scott Flanders acknowledged the magazine's inability to compete with freely available internet pornography and nudity; according to him, "You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it's just passé at this juncture". Hefner agreed with
3186-407: Was different than in the 20th century. Instead of being read in a single volume, a novel would often be consumed by readers in instalments over a period as long as a year, with the authors and periodicals often responding to audience reaction. In France, Alexandre Dumas and Eugène Sue were masters of the serialised genre. The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo each appeared as
3245-413: Was in color, not black and white. Playboy ' s enduring mascot, a stylized silhouette of a rabbit wearing a tuxedo bow tie , was created by Playboy art director Art Paul for the second issue as an endnote , but was adopted as the official logo and has appeared ever since. A running joke in the magazine involves hiding the logo somewhere in the cover art or photograph. Hefner said he chose
3304-578: Was in turn succeeded by publisher Scott Flanders . The magazine celebrated its 50th anniversary with the January 2004 issue. Celebrations were held at Las Vegas , Los Angeles, New York, and Moscow during the year to commemorate this event. Playboy also launched limited-edition products designed by fashion houses such as Versace , Vivienne Westwood and Sean John . As a homage to the magazine's 50th anniversary, MAC Cosmetics released two limited-edition products: lipstick and glitter cream. The printed magazine ran several annual features and ratings. One of
3363-454: Was reduced to 10 issues per year, with a combined January/February issue. On July 12, 2010, Playboy Enterprises Inc. announced Hefner's $ 5.50 per share offer ($ 122.5 million based on shares outstanding on April 30 and the closing price on July 9) to buy the portion of the company he did not already own and take the company private with the help of Rizvi Traverse Management LLC. The company derived much of its income from licensing rather than from
3422-523: Was serialised in La Revue de Paris in 1856. Some writers were prolific. Alexandre Dumas wrote at an incredible pace, oftentimes writing with his partner twelve to fourteen hours a day, working on several novels for serialised publication at once. However, not every writer could keep up with the serial writing pace. Wilkie Collins , for instance, was never more than a week before publication. The difference in writing pace and output in large part determined
3481-1206: Was the first interviewee for the section. "Rock the Rabbit" was an annual music news and pictorial feature published in the March edition. The pictorial featured images of rock bands photographed by music photographer Mick Rock . Fashion designers participated in the Rock the Rabbit event by designing T-shirts inspired by Playboy ' s rabbit head logo for each band. The shirts were sold at Playboy ' s retailers and auctioned off to raise money for AIDS research and treatment at LIFEbeat: The Music Industry Fights AIDS. Bands who were featured include: MGMT , Daft Punk , Iggy Pop , Duran Duran , Flaming Lips , Snow Patrol , and The Killers . The photographers who have contributed to Playboy include Mario Casilli , Ana Dias , Richard Fegley , Arny Freytag , Ron Harris , Tom Kelley , Annie Leibovitz , Ken Marcus , David Mecey , Russ Meyer , Helmut Newton , Pompeo Posar , Suze Randall , Herb Ritts , Ellen von Unwerth , Stephen Wayda , Sam Wu , and Bunny Yeager . Many celebrities (singers, actresses, models, etc.) have posed for Playboy over
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