Playboy is relaunching its iconic magazine as a digital front-end for its recently launched platform that lets individual creators charge a monthly fee for access to exclusive content, similar to OnlyFans.
The company ceased the print edition of the mag in March 2020, nearly 70 years after its debut. In the new iteration, select creator features will be available for free while behind-the-scenes and full photo shoots will be available only to subscribers of each creator on Playboy. At first, the reborn Playboy magazine will be not be in paper format but a print version may be in the offing.
The first cover of the relaunched Playboy magazine, released Monday, features Amanda Cerny — model, actor and former Playboy Playmate — as a futuristic “platinum Bunny.” The first full issue is scheduled to come out later this year.
Unlike OnlyFans, the Playboy subscription platform for creators does not allow porn. “Many of our creators do not have nudity on their pages,” a Playboy spokesperson said. “While we allow nudity, we do not allow explicit content/pornography… We are not positioning this as an ‘adult’ platform — it’s for everyone, including mainstream creators sharing behind the scenes of their lives.” Playboy’s new creator platform relaunched in mid-September 2022.
The new digital magazine will feature Playboy’s “most successful and up-and-coming creators in editorial features, cover shoots, Playboy fashion spreads and more,” the company said. “Since the launch of its premium platform, Playboy has already been publishing personal stories written by its creators about their lives and why they are proud to be on Playboy.”
Cerny first appeared in Playboy magazine as the October 2011 Playmate. On Playboy’s new creator platform, she has earned more than $1 million to date, according to the company. The company enlisted photographer and director Charlotte Rutherford to collaborate on a special-edition cover shoot with Cerny, with select images available only behind the paywall on her personal Playboy page.
“A Playboy creator is someone who is able to embrace their creativity, their sexuality and freely and unapologetically express themselves,” Cerny said in a statement. “I can’t wait to share more of my journey with exclusive behind-the-scenes content with my fans on my Playboy channel.”
Cerny’s photo shoot with Rutherford took a spin on “classic tropes to reclaim them in a playful way,” according to Playboy, including depictions of her as a biker, “gym bunny,” influencer, and “dog mom.”
“We’re laser-focused on building the safest and most lucrative and engaging creator platform in the world,” Playboy chief brand officer Rachel Webber said in a statement. She added that TikTok-native, older Gen-Z creators see the Playboy brand as a symbol of prestige in the paywall platform space: “They want a platform free from advertiser-driven content constraints, and also one represented by an aspirational brand they want to be associated with.”
In 2011, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner took Playboy Enterprises private — after 40 years as a publicly traded company — in partnership with private-equity firm Rizvi Traverse. (Hefner died in 2017.) The current PLBY Group, led by CEO Ben Kohn (former managing partner at Rizvi Traverse) went public in February 2021 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
