NYT Goes Behind The Scenes At New, ‘Woke’ Millennial Playboy Mag

Last year, as AVN.com reported at the time, Rizvi Traverse Management announced it was considering closing down Playboy Magazine. But Playboy was not shuttered, and has now been relaunched as an ad-free quarterly, according to The New York Post, printed on heavy, matte paper—something akin to a high-end, fine art publication. On Friday, The New York Times published an in-depth feature, exploring the inner workings of the revamped Playboy, which still features the nude photo spreads that first set the magazine apart from anything else on the newsstand on its debut nearly 66 years ago—but this time, with a new millennial-friendly “woke” approach. After one recent nude photo shoot was taken completely underwater, Playboy’s new executive editor, Shane Singh, explained to The Times, that rather than being presented for erotic effect, “The water is meant to represent gender and sexual fluidity.”  “This is a newer, woke-er, more inclusive Playboy,” wrote Times reporter Jessica Bennett. “The result is a magazine that is virtually unrecognizable from the one Mr. Hefner created — and, for the first time in Playboy’s history, with no Hefners involved.” Rizvi Traverse Management is a financial firm that had bought out the remainder of iconic Playboy Magazine founder and editor Hugh Hefner's controlling interest a few years ago. The magazine for decades had held its place as an American cultural landmark. At its peak in the 1960s, Playboy sold more than 5 million copies per month. Rivzi Traverse Managing Partner Ben Kohn said at the time of the acquisition that the company was primarily interested in turning Playboy from a media empire into a “brand management” enterprise, licensing the timeless Playboy name and logo to a wide variety of products and businesses. The final member of the Hefner clan, the founder’s son Cooper Hefner, resigned in April as chief creative officer. But he left his mark on the new Playboy, insisting on the return of nudity to the magazine’s pages, after the new owners briefly experimented with a non-nude version of the magazine. Today, the models who pose for the magazine’s nude spreads mark a sharp distinction from the “playmates” of the Hefner era. According to The Times, the models participating in the nude underwater shoot were performance artists, activists and a dancer who promoted ocean conservation.  They included Marisa Papen, who as AVN.com has covered, has become infamous by staging her own nude photo shoots in such places as the Vatican and the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the most sacred site in Judaism. In addition, all of the new Playboy’s top editorial team are now under 32, including Singh who is 31 and openly gay, Creative Director Erica Loewy, 26, and Anna Wilson, 29, who oversees Playboy’s photography and multimedia. Playboy’s editorial content, even the magazine’s notoriously raunchy cartoons have undergone a revamp for the #MeToo generation. “There is a queer cartoon and a feature on gender-neutral sex toys,” The Times reported, of Playboy’s Summer issue. “The fall issue will feature a photo essay by the artist Marilyn Minter celebrating female pubic hair.” Read the entire New York Times feature on the revamped, quarterly Playboy at this link.  Photo By Andres Moreno/Wikimedia Commons