Playgirl's Print Run is Dead

Nicole Caldwell, Playgirl's editor-in-chief, just emailed confirmation that the magazine is indeed shuttering its print operation.

"Playgirl is going all-Web. The last print issue will be the Jan/Feb 2009 magazine, which comes out Nov. 18," Caldwell writes.

Another print magazine decides to go all-web, all-the-time. Playgirl, which has been around since the 70s, has always been something of a closet case magazine, with a large unacknowledged gay readership. I know—I worked there. One of the great aspects to Playgirl magazine is that it helped the careers of three of the most famous photographers in the world: Herb Ritts, Greg Gorman and Matthew Rolston. It should be added that they did not use their real names while photographing naked men for the publication. Instead non de plums were used such as Tristan Tzara. It was a time when everyone wanted to be in Playgirl (including celebrities like Lyle Waggoner, George Maharis, Kevin Sorbo, Scott Bakula, Jim Brown) and it was essentially the only mass marketed magazine featuring cock at the time. As the times changed and gay porn began to be published in such legendary publications as In Touch, the readership continually dwindled. On a stranger note, Wikipedia has this to say about the magazine: "Throughout the years the magazine has matured as erections, foreskin and non-Caucasian models have appeared in the magazine. The magazine has generally featured models who have been circumcised but of late, layouts with uncircumcised models are featured."  Who new?

But it is important to remember that Playgirl likely sent many a closeted man on his way to self-realization.