Playboy Learns Internet Exists, Getting Rid Of Nude Photos

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Playboy magazine, for all its fame as a purveyor of airbrushed breasts and well-lit derrieres, has never really had much in the way of nudity compared to competitors. Now that just about any innocent search on the Internet will eventually bring up more bared flesh than a full issue of Playboy, the magazine has decided it’s about time to put some clothes on.

The New York Times reports that, starting next spring, Playboy — which has seen its monthly circulation drop from 5.6 million to around 800,000 over the last four decades — will no longer feature nude pictorials in print. There will still be attractive models in alluring poses, but nary a nipple will be seen.

“That battle has been fought and won,” explains Playboy CEO Scott Flanders. “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture.”

The magazine is apparently hoping that the lack of nudity will increases its availability to the wider market.

While the nude photo shoots were always the public focus of Playboy, the periodical has frequently included short fiction by some of literature’s biggest names and the “Playboy Interview” has wrangled in everyone from Hollywood movie stars to civil rights leaders and U.S. presidents.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Cory Jones, an editor at the magazine, tells the Times, “12-year-old me is very disappointed in current me. But it’s the right thing to do.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist