Hugh Hefner Takes Playboy Empire Private

COMMENTS (11)

• Maybe they’ll figure out that we’ve already seen Pamela Anderson (13 times) and Jenny McCarthy, and Carmen Electra and. . . Time to move on to something new. The well is closed, Hef

  Comment by Ron Parker — Monday January 10, 2011 @ 7:24am PST  Reply to this post

• “Full circle” = the end of accountability. Now he can run the company his way without those damn shareholders and the SEC bothering. Over the December Holidays, they FORCED all Playboy employees to use most all of their vacation days on the books. Hef didnt want the liabilities and screw the employees. Good luck Hef, I’ll bet what you think you want and what you’ll get are two very different things.

  Comment by Federico — Monday January 10, 2011 @ 7:56am PST  Reply to this post

• Like he had a choice. No one *but* Penthouse would want that rag.
  Of course to be fair, all the “Lad Mags” like Maxim that took pages from the Playboy playbook have mostly ceased publication here and elsewhere. I understand that Australia’s RALPH magazine has bitten the dust too.

  So at least Hef can take solace that he’s the last man standing, but still, the brand is tarnished.

  Comment by Sethj — Monday January 10, 2011 @ 7:58am PST  Reply to this post

• Boy did I read this one wrong. I thought it said “Playboy is no longer pubic” and they airbrushed the “L” out of “public.”

  Comment by Buddy Bing — Monday January 10, 2011 @ 8:37am PST  Reply to this post

• Hello publicly held production companies… see the handwriting on the wall yet? Take control, go private and streamline your bloated business models. Cinema is heading to the home and transportable media, big time. No more sticky theater floors or seats to deal with (unless the viewer also watches adult entertainment or “reads” Playboy.)

  Comment by Private Sector — Monday January 10, 2011 @ 10:26am PST  Reply to this post

• Congrat’s, I have been reading Playboy with my parents consent since ’61. I stayed at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club in ’73, with my then fiancee, along with severallbusiness associates. We loved it, and now my 24 year stepdaughter has a desire to stay in your current club with her fiance. My wife and I currently agree with her good choice. It is great to see the King of the PJ’s still mqkinng the importqnt decisions. Good Luck and again Congrat’s!!

  Comment by Galen Erickson — Tuesday January 11, 2011 @ 1:59am PST  Reply to this post

• OH BOY now ICM can party up there and hold pitch meetings-
  will the girls be included in this deal?

  Lets hope they come through and help the brand- it would be nice to keep this going so the sons can take it over- need business to be the FOCUS

  Comment by Anonymous — Tuesday January 11, 2011 @ 12:42pm PST  Reply to this post

• As someone who worked for Playboy and on several occasions for “Hef” directly, I’d like to offer some perspective and facts that can be introduced to this string. Playboy is one of the most successful brands with longevity that you will ever see. Hef was and remains a visionary and those of us fortunate enough to have met him even in a passing moment will attest to this. If you have not read the book “Bunny”…you should. Remaining un-endorsed by Playboy it offers some insight in to the decades of trial, perserverence and achievements of the company which like most companies experiences its volitility and……is still here unlike many others less fortunate. I was priviledged to work in Los Angeles as one of the early managers for their television properties and I can tell you that once the company decided to take control of its own destiny (At that time under the executive direction of Dick Sowa)and break away from the company representing it (Chuck Dolan @ Rainbow Programming & Distribution)and place it’s faith in people who understod the brand and how to evolve it…the company soared! We had the best jobs and not in the way the myopically oriented man or women would think. As young people, we had to think fast, we were paid to travel throughout the United States, we were offered the oppotunity to meet many famous people, had to quickly become capable of advocating independence, the first ammendment, to deal with conflict and be fast on our feet. The founder was ahead of the curve even more so than Christie who I also respected and represented. In many ways I owe my success some 20 years later to that experience. That Playboy, now under Scott Flanders, with over the shoulder mentorship and guidence by people like Dick Rozensweig, Bill Farley etc is reinventing itself again…is not being done out of desperation rather intelligence and a very well established learning curve and consistent understanding of what the brand requires to continue it’s shelf space and consumer attraction. Regardless of your position on the content it is a success story that has a strong foundation and it has many people to thank for the fact that it is still here in the face of a road littered with those mightier that have fallen. If Scott Flanders called…I’d go back. Enjoy the rest of the story!

  Comment by Daniel A. MacKenzie — Tuesday January 11, 2011 @ 2:35pm PST  Reply to this post

• your an idiot–

  hef is awesome!

  Comment by ----iii — Saturday January 22, 2011 @ 5:51pm PST  Reply to this post

• hef has accomplished more than any man in history–er most toward living a good life–

  80 years of the hi life

  Comment by ------pp — Saturday January 22, 2011 @ 5:54pm PST  Reply to this post

• Playboy Magazine still publishes the funniest cartons. Over the years Playboy Magazine has run thousands of biographies, interviews, & everything else under the sun. Playboy has done innumerable stories & one-on-one interviews. Playboy also still has the sleek, interesting advertisements. I have a big book collection. The one book I have from Playboy (no, I don’t have any of Hefner’s magazines) is ‘Playboy’s Illustrated History of Organzied Crime’. Copyright 1975. At that time was $18.95. I don’t much care for pornography. Some of it is down right disgusting. I always thought Playboy Magazine treated bare-breasted women with respect.

  Comment by Clarence — Friday September 30, 2011 @ 12:50pm PDT  Reply to this post