Aug
4
“Playgirl” Mag Folds, Goes Web-Only
August 4, 2008 | 9 Comments
Sign of the times: Playgirl Magazine will soon go the way of all things. Editor-in-Chief Nicole Caldwell announced today that the final newsstand issue will be Jan/Feb 2009, although the brand will continue web-only operations (for now) at Playgirl.com. Magazines are closing down every other month and “web-only operations” would seem to the double-aught version of “I’m leaving to spend more time with my family” or “hospitalized due to exhaustion.” The web-only Playgirl has been openly closeted about using gay porn actors, moreso than the magazine, so let’s wait and see if that continues — heck, their landing page features headshots of Tony Capucci, Tyler Saint, Johnny Castle and Zeb Atlas! “Details of the site’s look are scarce,” says MediaBistro, “but it will feature more videos and pictorials and less editorial content.” I can’t help but feel a twinge of nostalgia for the bad ol’ days when I was a closeted teen wandering the God-fearing suburbs of Pittsburgh, and cheestastic Playgirl mag was a hallowed beacon of, well, something mysterious and wonderful that seemed impossibly out of my grasp. Wandering across a tattered copy in the woods when I was 12 or 13 was like seventy-hundred Christmases all at once. [H/T Fishbowl NY.]
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9 Comments so far
,,,the God-fearing suburbs of Pittsburgh!!!
Oh that explains it so were we Justin?
A friend of mine who has worked in publishing now retired says the bloodbath has just begun.
He says in the next 2 years large national publications will be shuttered. The Economics of print,distribution and mailing a magazine don’t work today.
Same for Newspapers here in San Diego the Union Tribune is up for sale. The 21st largest newspaper in the 6th largest US city.
That disconnect tells you why its failing fewer than 300,000 readers in a population of 3 Million.
Print is dead!
That magazine is for straight women. Why is it being reported on here???
Will, have you seen “Playgirl” lately? It’s all about gay porn actors…
JC, I have to laugh (lovingly) at your memory of the “cheestastic” magazine back in your youth. I have friends who feel the same way about the “International Male” catalogs.
Bill in S.F.– Kidding! (I HAVE to start using the smileys.)
This means I’ll definitely keep my 1986, Brian Buzzini issue.
Before the Castro/San Francisco Crown Books store closed, Playgirl was by far the best selling ‘sophisticate’ magazine in that location, widely outselling Playboy and Penthouse. (Of course in other Crown locations, Playboy and Penthouse were much better sellers.)
The carthorse question is about the retail side. I have heard that 90%, that’s nine-zero percent, of independent bookstores, i.e. stores selling (but not exclusively selling) LGBT books and magazines have gone under in the last 8 years. If that retail class of trade depended for its survival on a mix of bookworms, homo’s, mag-a-holics, etc. to stay in business, is the undertow of the larger “Amazon” and internet as news source effect as much to blame as the fact that Playgirl is lame? (rhyme intended) In other words, if the magazine falls in the forest, but there are no bookstores left to hear it, will anyone notice? I bet you that this is going to get very, very bad. The number of Adult magazine titles that will survive? Zero.
Now I wish I had not thrown out some of my “celebrity” issues over the years. I’ll have to buy the last few issues just as keepsakes!
Poor, poor Playgirl. I will miss you! I will def. buy the last few issues as well!