How is that even possible? Thanks to the internet, nudity has become so easily available that no one wants to pay for it anymore. So much so that Playboy went from a million-dollar venture, reduced to only 800,00 annual circulation in 2015.
Instead of cutting their losses and closing down, Playboy decided to opt for a different approach. They fired a bunch of people and hired new photographers, illustrators, and writers, and gave the brand a make-over.
“This was a clean slate,” says Mac Lewis, Playboy’s Creative Director. As the ideas developed, you could start to see the cleanliness that we wanted.” The editors relaunched Playboy’s website as suitable for work, and viewership shot up 400 percent, from 4 million views in July to 16 million in December.
The no-nude policy drove Playboy into a more sophisticated, artistic approach. After about 10 versions of the new layout, searching for a minimalist look, they settled on a design which you will see in the March issue. This new version of Playboy also follows the three-column, treatment found in vintage Playboys.
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