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So, those of your who pay attention to such things may be aware that Playboy just rolled out their new format which, most notably, no longer contains nudity. Now you can claim with absolute authority that you only read it for the articles.
I’m wondering if this is going to be their New Coke, or their death knell.
Because I can’t really imagine this new format catching on with a new crowd (it looks and feels like the New Yorker), but I can see a lot of the changes alienating the old audience. Not only are all the naked girls gone, but the font is smaller, the cartoons are virtually all gone, the jokes page is gone and the Advisor is down to a single question. (Also, Jethrien pointed out that there's no letter column--the old version of the magazine had several "reader response" sections.) It feels like a fundamentally different magazine after looking basically the same since I hit puberty.
And don’t get me wrong, the writing is good. (The writing has always been good.) But I can’t see that being enough to drive new audience appeal after you alienate the people still reading magazines—the 40+ year olds who’ve been reading magazines their whole lives. Are college kids going to pick up the new magazine? I certainly doubt I would.
I’m guessing there will either be a “triumphant return” of nudity and at least some aspects of the old format in the next year or so, or that the magazine will just drop circulation until it quietly ceases publication altogether in a few years. Which would be a shame.
I’m wondering if this is going to be their New Coke, or their death knell.
Because I can’t really imagine this new format catching on with a new crowd (it looks and feels like the New Yorker), but I can see a lot of the changes alienating the old audience. Not only are all the naked girls gone, but the font is smaller, the cartoons are virtually all gone, the jokes page is gone and the Advisor is down to a single question. (Also, Jethrien pointed out that there's no letter column--the old version of the magazine had several "reader response" sections.) It feels like a fundamentally different magazine after looking basically the same since I hit puberty.
And don’t get me wrong, the writing is good. (The writing has always been good.) But I can’t see that being enough to drive new audience appeal after you alienate the people still reading magazines—the 40+ year olds who’ve been reading magazines their whole lives. Are college kids going to pick up the new magazine? I certainly doubt I would.
I’m guessing there will either be a “triumphant return” of nudity and at least some aspects of the old format in the next year or so, or that the magazine will just drop circulation until it quietly ceases publication altogether in a few years. Which would be a shame.
