Playboy will no longer publish images of fully nude women in its magazine beginning this spring. The magazine says that the internet has made nudity outdated, and pornographic magazines are no longer commercially viable.
Of course, Playboy will still feature women in provocative poses, but models and celebs will no longer bare all when the March 2016 issue hits newsstands in February. The move comes as part of a radical redesign that will be unveiled next March, the magazine – which was founded in 1953 – announced on Tuesday morning.
“The onslaught of Internet pornography has made the nude images in Playboy “passé,” Scott Flanders, the company’s chief executive, told the New York Times. “That battle has been fought and won,” Flanders continued. “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free.”
Playboy‘s website has already banished nudity, partly to give it access to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. And its popularity has soared, with web traffic quadrupling. The revamped print magazine will continue to aim for a target audience of millennials between the ages of 18 and 30-something.
Playboy was founded by Hugh Hefner and his associates in 1953. The magazine’s circulation has dropped from 5.6 million in the 1970s to about 800,000 today, the Times reported.
