• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Techplayboy magazine

What’s Going on at Playboy?

By
Hilary Brueck
Hilary Brueck
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Hilary Brueck
Hilary Brueck
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 25, 2016, 8:32 AM ET
Playboy nudity change
Playboy nudity change. File photo dated 15/11/07 of Hugh Hefner signing copies of the Playboy calendar and Playboy Cover To Cover:The 50's DVD box set, as Playboy is to stop publishing pictures of naked women, saying easy access to such images online means they are "passe". Issue date: Tuesday October 13, 2015. The magazine famed for its bunny girls, who have included Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and supermodel Kate Moss, aims to become more accessible as it enters its 63rd year, its chief content officer said. See PA story MEDIA Playboy. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire URN:24420546Photograph by Ian West — PA Wire/PA Images

First, the magazine got rid of nude photos.

Now, Playboy might be looking for a new home altogether.

Playboy Enterprises, the parent company of Playboy magazine, is looking into selling the company, the Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday. The Journal noted the company could nab roughly $500 million in a sale.

The potential sale comes just after the first nudity-free issue of the magazine was unveiled earlier this year. But that was just one tactic the company seems to be exploring in a continuing quest to stay relevant in the digital age.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

When Playboy released its no-full-frontal March issue, the rebranded, PG-13-style glossy brought in an influx of new advertisers to the magazine. Yet, the move appeared to cover up what could really be a bid by the company to woo a younger audience of millennial readers.

Playboy has struggled to stay relevant in the digital era of smartphones, social media, and virtual reality porn. The wealth of naked content and porn online (often for free) can make all the old-school excitement of the nude Playboy playmate in a magazine feel…a bit “passé,” as Playboy CEO Scott Flanders put it.

You, too, can buy the Playboy Mansion. Watch:

Playboy may also be looking to other strategies to draw in those younger crowds. The company is said to be considering buying up Arsenic, Business Insider reports. That’s the social media hub where women submit photos for free, recently dubbed the “Playboy for the Snapchat generation,” by Smashd magazine.

ArsenicTV videos fetch hundreds of thousands of views per day across platforms, including Snapchat. On Instagram alone, Arsenic has quickly amassed nearly a million followers.

By comparison, Playboy’s circulation has plummeted to around 800,000 from the whopping 5.6 million readers the magazine drew in 40 years ago.

On top of it all, in additional to the aforementioned financial struggles on the publishing side, the infamous Playboy Mansion also went up for sale earlier this year—complete with live-in magnate Hugh Hefner, who said sale or no sale, he’ll be staying in the $200 million house.

Arsenic and Playboy did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment on the potential deals.

About the Author
By Hilary Brueck
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Success
In 2026, many employers are ditching merit-based pay bumps in favor of ‘peanut butter raises’
By Emma BurleighFebruary 2, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
'I just don't have a good feeling about this': Top economist Claudia Sahm says the economy quietly shifted and everyone's now looking at the wrong alarm
By Eleanor PringleJanuary 31, 2026
4 days ago
placeholder alt text
Cybersecurity
Top AI leaders are begging people not to use Moltbook, a social media platform for AI agents: It’s a ‘disaster waiting to happen’
By Eva RoytburgFebruary 2, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, February 2, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerFebruary 2, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Future of Work
‘You’re not a hero, you’re a liability’: Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary warns Gen Z founders to stop glorifying hustle culture
By Jacqueline MunisFebruary 2, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Future of Work
Ford CEO has 5,000 open mechanic jobs with up to 6-figure salaries from the shortage of manually skilled workers: 'We are in trouble in our country'
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJanuary 31, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Latest in Tech

AIAmazon
Amazon AWS CEO Matt Garman pushes back against Elon Musk’s space data centers plan
By Alexei OreskovicFebruary 3, 2026
1 hour ago
broker
AIMarkets
Oracle defused ‘the key risk going into 2026,’ BofA argues, but the market isn’t buying it
By Nick Lichtenberg and Eva RoytburgFebruary 3, 2026
4 hours ago
Image of Moltbook app logo on a smart phone with another image of the Moltbook logo in the background.
AIEye on AI
Moltbook is scary—but not for the reasons so many headlines said
By Jeremy KahnFebruary 3, 2026
4 hours ago
Aerial image of the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., off the coast of Rhode Island.
EnergyRenewables
Trump hates the way wind farms look. Too bad, America’s court system says
By Tristan BoveFebruary 3, 2026
6 hours ago
Moltbook image.
AIChatbots
In Moltbook hysteria, former top Facebook researcher sees echoes of 2017 panic over bots building a ‘secret language’
By Jeremy KahnFebruary 3, 2026
7 hours ago
two men smile in front of the camera
CryptoCryptocurrency
Kairos, which is building a cross-platform tool for prediction markets traders, raises $2.5 million from a16z crypto
By Carlos GarciaFebruary 3, 2026
10 hours ago