Playboy magazine’s policy of no more nude women is barely eight months in place, but speculations are that the naked females may make a comeback. Behind the rumor is the stepping down of Hugh Hefner as the chief creative officer of the iconic men’s publication.
The 90-year-old founder of Playboy was behind the decision to stop publishing nude photos of women beginning March 2016 because the paying market for such images is gone due to the proliferation of free pornography on the internet. The magazine also tried to run after branding and merchandising deal that it could not close when Playboy had nude images.
Hefner is having health problems and as a result was replaced by 25-year-old Cooper Hefner, his son, New York Post reported. The young Hefner did not hide his disagreement with his old man’s policy. Cooper’s taking over Hugh’s job surprised many Playboy employees who made major redesign so that only scantily clad women would be seen on the iconic magazine’s pages instead of totally naked babes.
The speculation is that Cooper would bring back the nude female in 2017, but he may have some problems with Ben Kohn, interim chief executive of Playboy and managing director of Rizvi Traverse, the majority owner of the magazine who confirmed that the young Hefner took over his father’s role.
In early 2016, Cooper told Business Insider, “"When you have a company and the founder is responsible for kick-starting the sexual revolution and then you pluck out that aspect of the company's DNA by removing the nudity, it makes a lot of people including me sit and say: 'What the hell is the company doing?'"
“There has been no change of heart, and I continue to be well aware of what has made Playboy so remarkably special,” Cooper said through a spokesman. However, he also said in an email that some of successful creative and business pivots over the last few years are worthy of celebration, hinting it would likely remain.
The “safe for work” Web redesign of Playboy boosted the magazine’s digital traffic by 230 percent. However, Cory Jones, chief content officer who was behind the redesign, was forced out two months ago. Jason Buhrmester, editorial director who disagrees with Cooper’s appointment, no longer goes to the office while putting on the finishing touches to the January 2017 issue.