Q&A with Playboy

Check out the following Q&A with Chris Napolitano, Playboy editorial director at Freakonomics blog;

Q: To what degree is Playboy’s circulation decline a magazine issue versus a pornography issue (i.e., the digital revolution has hurt most magazines’ circulation and advertising prospects while also greatly increasing the supply of pornography)?

A: It’s a magazine publishing issue. We’re not going to kill ourselves by supporting what is widely acknowledged as a broken newsstand system, so we manage our rate-base accordingly. Please keep in mind that, because of advertiser sensitivity, Playboy relies enormously on generated revenue from subscriptions and single-copy sales. That makes us unique among most magazines, and it’s something we’re thankful about when the magazine industry ad pendulum swings in the wrong direction. It gives us something to hang on during such challenging times for magazines as now (particularly in the men’s category: FHM folded; Maxim has new ownership, and Stuff has been folded into it).

So what to do? We know our brand is stronger than ever; we’re reaching more consumers than ever through our various media platforms. We’re aware of the changes in how and where media is consumed today, and we’re well-poised to take advantage of that. Last year we combined the publishing and online groups, and we’ve increased the overall audience for Playboy. Our goal is to continue effectively aggregating that audience for our advertising partners. Our free site has a large portion of material from the magazine, and we’re discussing ways of extending even more content online. The challenge for the magazine industry is in figuring out ways to adopt metrics that go beyond what’s shown on the ABC and MRI statements.

I’m so sick of being held up to our circulation spike in the 1970s. The world was much different then. All magazines had higher circulations. Cable TV and the Internet did not exist; VCRs were in their infancy. Look at CBS then, and look at CBS now. But even in this niche market, CBS and Playboy are pretty damn big. And here’s the thing: thanks to our early arrival on the Web (Playboy was the first magazine with a Web site, launched in 1994), our combined audience is bigger than ever. We’re offering Playboy-style content on advertiser-supported and paid subscription sites, and the combined advertising revenue year over year is up.

Today, magazines exist in a universe of expanded entertainment choices for men. Even in the magazine universe alone, the competition is intense — there are a lot of magazines out there! And now we’re competing with free and pirated material online. It’s a transitional period, and we’re certainly one company with the resources and product to ride it out.