Same old skin?

As some of you may know, Playboy is trying to appeal to a younger audience. So, over the last few months, they've switched editors, moved to New York, and rejiggered the editorial content. The first issue of this new breed is coming out soon--the Chicago Tribune took a look at an advance copy and gave it a thumbs-down.



This doesn't surprise me; from the article, it seems like an utterly unsurprising and calculated attempt to reach "all those people watching MTV", filled with decisions based on focus groups rather than intelligent thought. Great magazines come from a unique vision, put into practice by the right group of people. The editors have to lead their audience, and hope that the synergy and talent of their staff will draw readers. For example, you can't revamp a magazine like Playboy starting from the premise that "our audience doesn't like to read." That's wrong; people who buy Playboy must like to read, or else they'd watch Skinemax instead. The solution to circulation erosion isn't more factoids; it's exactly the opposite--more substance. Magazines need to stop trying to be imitations of television, and start being magazines again.



if they asked me how to reach the young folks with a magazine--and people used to, more fool them--I'd say, "First of all, porn is everywhere and you can get it for free. Now days, people have to read your magazine also for what it says, not just for what it shows. Stop selling ersatz, rap-video sophistication. Invest in top fiction, absolutely rock-solid experts, great design and illustration, even decent humor. Your readers aren't looking for what a print version of what they already like to watch on TV, they're looking to be molded, moved up, made adult. Playboy became successful by showing its readers what to aspire to--and the continuing uncertainty among men on what it means to be a man gives you a tremendous opportunity. Downmarket magazines like Penthouse and Hustler and the lad mags have already taken their bites of your circulation--the low end. Invest in the high end. Think Cary Grant, not Kid Rock." But they won't do it, I bet. I predict more profiles of 50 Cent, more models that look like strippers, et cetera et cetera et cetera.