The Real Women of Playboy

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 1, 2004

Beefing up the TV division was somewhat easier. In addition to expanding the Playboy channel, the company purchased adult-only networks, like Spice and Vivid, and increased its holdings from one Playboy channel reaching 9 million U.S. homes in 1993 to nine domestic television networks with 40 million viewers in the U.S. and 35 million abroad last year. Even though the magazine remains the driver of the company, says Lindeman, Playboy currently makes more from its entertainment division than from publishing.

The magazine itself has been losing ground for more than a decade. Arthur Kretchmer, who had been editing Playboy since the late 1960s, retired at the end of 2003 and was replaced by James Kaminsky, a former Maxim editor. By then, however, the damage was done. Penthouse and Hustler had taken a chunk out of Playboy's hide in the 1970s and 1980s with more explicit sexual content, and Internet porn hurt all three publications in the 1990s. More recently, younger, hipper men's magazines like Maxim and FHM have challenged Playboy. Its rate base, now 3.1 million, is half what it was in the magazine's heyday.

Publisher Diane Silberstein says the revamped magazine is now attracting younger readers under Kaminsky. And that it is incorporating more female voices. She points to a January article by Lauren Weisberger, who wrote the magland roman 'a clef, The Devil Wears Prada, about sexual politics in the office.

The company, which lost money from 1999 through 2003, is expected to turn a profit again this year. The company had a strong fourth quarter, with net revenues for the period up 24 percent, from $73.5 million to $91.1 million. Revenues for the publishing division were up 26 percent, to $36.8 million from $29.1 million. Circulation for the period rose 11 percent, to $18.2 million, while advertising revenues increased 67 percent, to $13.7 million.

The year 2004 got off to a strong start with a January issue (commemorating the 50th anniversary of the magazine) that carried 100 ad pages and a 318-page folio, making it the fattest Playboy in more than 15 years. Silberstein and Lisa Natale, senior vice president of marketing, made sure Playboy's anniversary bash made a big splash. It was taped and appeared on A&E, and Lauren Melone, vice president of public relations, blitzed the media for coverage.

Meanwhile, CFO Havard has been shoring up the company's finances. She floated Playboy's first successful public debt offering last year, which raised $115 million. She also helped to restructure an international television deal, which gave the company ownership of 15 international networks - without having to commit more capital.

"Clearly the women that Playboy has in senior positions are very strong," says magazine consultant Rebecca McPheters. "From a business standpoint, you can't help but be impressed."

Christie Hefner credits her dad with creating an environment in which women have long been able to thrive. "From early on, Playboy welcomed people based on their hard work and their abilities," she says. "Before he started Playboy, my father worked in the personnel department of a Chicago company and quit his job when he was told not to bother interviewing people with Jewish and foreign-sounding last names," she says. That experience made him more open to hiring women from the beginning. "In the 1960s when the women who worked at other newspapers and magazines were going to court to try and break open jobs that had been available to men only, you could look at Playboy's masthead and see a lot of women editors." Examples include the magazine's cartoon editor, West Coast photo editor, section editor and copy editor. The company also was an early adopter of family-friendly benefits such as flex-time scheduling.