Playboy magazine kills print edition, blames coronavirus for disruption of production
The coronavirus just killed 66-year-old Playboy magazine and its beloved — or infamous — centerfolds.
Playboy CEO Ben Kohn explained the decision to stop printing the magazine in “an open letter” posted on Medium.com, saying the worsening pandemic had disrupted “content production and the supply chain.” The news was also posted on the company’s Facebook page.
“We have decided that our Spring 2020 Issue, which arrives on U.S. newsstands and as a digital download this week, will be our final printed publication for the year in the U.S,” Kohn said in the statement.
“We will move to a digital-first publishing schedule for all of our content including the Playboy Interview, 20Q, the Playboy Advisor and of course our Playmate pictorials,” he wrote.
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The $3 billion-a-year empire will also live on via clothing, jewelry, condoms and perfume products, the release said. Some form of printed product will return in 2021, he said, but it will be special editions rather than the traditional magazine, Kohn posted.
The decision, announced Wednesday, comes at a time when more than 14,000 coronavirus infections have been reported across the United States and 10,000 people have died across the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.
A growing number of communities are considering stay-at-home orders like one put in place this week for the entire state of California. Such orders are legally mandatory and prevent people from leaving home for anything other than essential business and health needs.
“Playboy is many things to many people. A magazine to many, a lifestyle to many more ... according to some, ‘a corruptor of our youth’,” Kohn wrote.
“One thing has remained constant: our commitment to free expression and breaking taboos, leaning into discomfort ... We will never stop seeking to help our audience understand their own sexuality and that of others,” his statement said.
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 5:43 AM with the headline "Playboy magazine kills print edition, blames coronavirus for disruption of production."