Playboy may end print magazine, report says

LOS ANGELES — Newsstands soon could be stripped of one of the nation’s most iconic publications: Playboy magazine.

Playboy Enterprises Inc. reportedly is considering killing the print magazine, which was started more than six decades ago by Hugh Hefner, who died in September.

Famous for its racy images of nude women, the magazine launched Hefner’s publishing and entertainment empire. But Hefner’s death has triggered a process that will shift ownership of the company from his family to the largest shareholder, private equity firm Rizvi Traverse, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Ben Kohn, a managing partner at Rizvi who is Playboy Enterprises’ chief executive, wants to shift the company’s emphasis to brand partnerships and licensing deals.

“We want to focus on what we call the ‘World of Playboy’ which is so much larger than a small, legacy print publication,” Kohn told the Journal. “We plan to spend 2018 transitioning it from a media business to a brand-management company.”

That shift involves seriously considering ending the print magazine, which began in 1953. U.S. circulation has dropped to less than 500,000 an issue from a peak of 5.6 million in 1975.

The Journal said Playboy’s print magazine, which now publishes six issues a year, has lost as much as $7 million annually in recent years.

“Historically, we could justify the losses because of the marketing value, but you also have to be forward thinking,” Kohn said.

John Vlautin, a spokesman for Playboy, declined to comment Tuesday.

Rizvi Traverse agreed to keep publishing the magazine for as long as Hefner lived.

IAN WEST/PA WIRE 2007 An agreement with a private equity investor promised to keep printing Playboy for as long as Hugh Hefner was alive.