So, Playboy announced today they are putting every issue ever made online. In today's world, porn is just a google away (or really good bookmarks). But there has always been the claim, "I only get it for the articles." Apparently the powerful articles of the past haven't been around lately. But it does raise a question. FOCUS: Is this going to raise or lower the price of the first editions (which range anywhere from $5-15k for the Marilyn Monroe one in mint or near mint condition)? Alt. Focus: Good idea or bad idea? Would you pay to subscribe to a magazine to get the entire collection (of Playboy, or any other magazine) online?
It's a good idea. Sadly it'll probably never work. Playboy, like most magazines, is doomed. They might want to give away access to a recent year's worth as a teaser (maybe 2009 or something). I find there is little more nostalgic than reading old magazines, so their contents definitely have value to me. I like looking at the vintage ads and the like also. I would pay well for a DVD filled with all the issues of Omni in PDF.
I think they'll sell reasonably well to the older guys. I liken it to the muscle car frenzy you see at Barret Jackson auctions; older guys, who now have cash, are buying the stuff they lusted after when they were younger. Back in the day, porn wasn't freely available on any computer, and it was a totally different style. That nostalgia will sell. As a matter of fact, I bet you we will start seeing a slight shift to the porn where women have curves, slight bush, innocence, and aren't gagging on 9 dicks while going ass to mouth.
alt focus:It's an idea that's about a decade to late. Playboy was a great men's mag in it's time but has failed to be new and inovative online and on paper. There was a huge void that Maxim filled in it's hay day with humor, hot pics of big name stars, wrapped in a cover that you could leave on the coffee table and not worry about your girlfriend being pissed you read that. I'm sure once the first wave of subscribers is on, all of it will be a google away. I'm not sure if they have an app, but a killer I-Pad app would be a better deal for them. Playboy might be the only mag I would get to get all the past stuff online, but I like my t&a a little more, um, diverse. Plus who wants to see that much muff anymore? focus It will lower them a little a first, but the very rare issues will be seen my more eyes and possibly go up because of wanting to have that issue.
Maxim recently gave away a year's subscription for free for playing some online trivia game that was just an ad for a car company. Problem was, you could just post the link to the "Thanks for playing, give us your address for free Maxim!" anywhere, you didn't even have to play the game. I guess they got so many applications they had to turn most of them away, but somehow I got mine. Even after getting it for about a year, I would never actually buy a subscription to it. The articles mostly suck, the cover girls get like one picture, everything said amounts to "This girl is hot, we'd like to put our penises in and around her body holes." Just weak overall, I can see why it was popular back in the day but now it's really not worth it. The only magazines I can see sticking around are the very specific hobby/ trade magazines, and those even still will probably be more popular in some sort of online format.
As a drummer and mountain biker who used to subscribe to a few different hobby magazines, I agree with this. I used to subscribe to mountain biking magazines for the product/destination reviews, race coverage, and editorials. These days Freecaster and live timing make it possible to follow races live on the internet. There are also now several websites which publish great product reviews which are free to read. Between these and the mountain bike-specific message boards I'm a part of, I can get my fill of bike-related content quickly and easily. Given that, there really doesn't seem to be much use in subscribing to a print magazine these days, which I do actually find a little sad sometimes. A few have actually been publishing their magazines on the web the same time they're released in print, for a subscription fee. This is a step-up I guess, but it still runs into the problem of being basically outdated information by the time it's published. I, like the good Doctor above, still enjoy poring over my back issues from 10 to 12 years back, which isn't much in real time, but it's amazing to see how much the sport has progressed in that time. I guess this isn't any big revelation, as the topic of the internet drinking print media's milkshake is almost a cliche at this point.
It's not really relevant, but I'm going to say it anyway. My dad has at least a portion of every issue of Playboy. I say a portion because the first few issues all he has is a cover in bad condition or a centerfold in similarly bad condition. One whole wall of their basement is filled with racks of playboys. He's got several copies of about every issue. He doesn't know how to work a computer, so will not be doing the online thing.
Alt focus No, I wouldn't subscribe to the website. It might be cool to read some of the interviews and articles from the past, but they're not relevant anymore. Actually, the print magazine is rarely relevant anymore. I used to be able to read the magazine cover to cover, and now can skim through it in one sitting skipping many of the articles. Anyone who buys Playboy for the pictures is getting ripped off as there aren't that many and what is there is pretty much an airbrushed carbon copy of the issue before. There's a lot better viewing pleasure on the internet. This most recent renewal of my subscription will most likely be the last.
It won't impact the value of past hard copies any more than a CD or iTunes release would of a classic vinyl album. I wouldn't buy an online sub for it, but I would like to read some of the interviews they published over the years. And "Girls of the Big 12" just to see if any of my neighbors are among them.
At least print journalists can plausibly try to make quality arguments. Not only can I find lots of other porn online. I can find lots of better, sexier, more interesting porn online. Comparatively, Playboy is just sort of boring. And often the models don't look like actual people. They've been airbrushed past the point of remaining homo sapien.
Those 1st edition and rares will be worth whatever people are willing to waste on them. (Old) Playboys are hardly risque anymore and considered art by many people. I wouldn't think twice about having a 1st edition 1st print in my bar if I had the scratch to waste on it. Alt focus: I have every Maxim magazine up until 2005. The first issue was worth about $500 a few years ago when the magazine was still popular. I wish I had unloaded it (and all my other issues) then. Now I've got boxes of these things all over... and I'll never ever look at them again.
When I turned 18, my uncle gave me a copy of the issue of Playboy that was for the month I was born and a year's subscription. The old issue was a really cool gift, something I'd like to do for my nephew in the future. I think Playboy is a unique product that skirts the line between a lot of different things. It's not GQ, it's not quite pornographic, and the fact that it falls somewhere in the middle is how it's survived as an icon for all these years. I also think that, just like any "culture" magazine, it can fall out of touch with the audience rapidly (remember how Maxim went from Playboy Light to Jersey Douche Instruction Guide?). Archiving every issue won't make them more relevant, and will probably be counter-productive. Playboy used to be the only place to see people like Cindy Crawford naked, read candid interviews that avoided the typical topics and gave a wide variety of writers a more or less open forum. Now, that market niche is much harder to define. If Steven King has a short story he can't really do anything with, he has a blog. There are hundreds of paparazzi to take photos of celebrities naked, whether they pose or not. And the market for a "candid interview" is simply flooded. Also, as far as nude photography goes, this magazine pioneered the use of airbrushing and photoshopping their models. As bad as I want to see celebrity snatch, I don't want to be reminded of how fake the pictures are. Bill Hicks even wrote a joke about it. Instead of archiving all these old issues, they need to be figuring out Sarah Palin's magic number and seeing how bad people like Pippa Middleton and Lady Gaga want to stay famous in 2012.
If they had a Lady Gaga spread I'd cancel my subscription. Now, if they had a KATE Middleton one I'd buy a lifetime renewal. I look at this similar to the whole e-reader debate. Yeah, it's nice, and a lot of people are going to do it. But nothing replaces the tactile feeling of a book (or magazine) in your hands. Those who genuinely like to read books, and especially those who collect them, are always going to purchase books, whether or not they have an e-reader or not. And those who collect magazines and/or porn, are always going to have a physical subscription, and value an old edition, whether or not they can view all the content online. This is just the magazine's version of an e-reader, in my opinion.
I don't see the need for Playboy. I bought one issue once, when I was like 19-20, and wasn't impressed. If I want porn, I've got a web browser (and a couple hundred gigs saved on my external hard drive). If I want to read pretentious left-wing pseudo-journalism I'll pick up a copy of Esquire, Rolling Stone, or the New York Times. I've actually wondered this for a while--did Maxim really have a hey-day (late 90s/early 00s) which has now passed, or is this just my perception because I happened to be in my mid-late teens in the late 90s/early 00s and Maxim actually is still just as popular as ever among dumb mid-late teen males?? That's in PlayGIRL, dude.