Playboy renews its focus on media
Firm names media president to build in streaming, video games, virtual-reality platforms
Playboy Enterprises Inc. has focused recently on becoming a lifestyle brand, but it isn’t ready to give up on its editorial roots just yet.
Nearly a year after its founder, Hugh Hefner, died at age 91, Playboy is looking to revitalize its editorial output, with greater integration of its online and television offerings built around a streamlined version of the magazine.
To that end, Playboy has hired Julie Uhrman as its first-ever president of media to help the company develop a greater presence in streaming television, videogames and virtualand augmented-reality platforms.
“Julie brings a wealth of experience with technology, platforms and gaming, which is integral to our strategy going forward,” said Playboy Enterprises’ chief executive, Ben Kohn.
She joins from Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., where she served as executive vice presi- dent and general manager of the company’s streaming television business since 2016. Earlier, Ms. Uhrman founded OUYA, an Android-based videogaming console backed in part by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and acquired by Razer Inc. in 2015.
The move to revamp Playboy’s content comes after the company reached a deal at the end of July with Mr. Hefner’s estate to sell the family’s roughly 35% stake to its majority owner, private-equity firm Rizvi Traverse, for $35 million. Rizvi Traverse took control of roughly twothirds of Playboy in 2011when it helped Mr. Hefner take the company private.
While Mr. Hefner’s family no longer has any ownership of the company he started on a card table in his living room in 1953, his youngest son, Cooper Hefner, 27, will remain as Playboy’s chief creative officer.
After Mr. Hefner’s death, the company began to re-evaluate the future of the money-losing U.S. magazine, which was scaled back to six issues a year from 10 in 2017, after a brief period in which it stopped printing nude pictures.
In early January, Mr. Kohn said the company was considering ending its run in print entirely, but he now says the magazine will continue, although pared back to a quarterly next year.
Each issue will feature 220 pages—nearly double its current size—and three playmates. Since 2011, Playboy has worked to turn itself into more of a lifestyle brand, focusing on licensing deals to produce things like wallets stamped with bunny ears, and slap the Playboy name on nightclubs and casinos around the world. Much of its licensing business is focused on China, where the magazine doesn’t exist and the company is viewed more as a lifestyle company.
Seven years ago, the company outsourced the management of its adult pay-per-view channel and websites to Manwin (now Mindgeek), one of the world’s largest operators of adult websites. Playboy has since taken back control of the properties.
This year, the company has worked to focus more on equity partnerships and joint ventures around Playboy-themed projects, including a line of spirits and an upscale Playboy Club opening on Wednesday in New York.
Despite the growth of its lifestyle business, the company’s media division—the magazine, subscription websites and adult pay-per-view channel—delivered about half of its overall revenue of $90 million. Mr. Kohn said the company was on target for 15% revenue growth in 2018.
“We are just returning to our roots of what Hef stood for and just contemporizing it for today,” Mr. Kohn said.