Playboy magazine will no longer publish nude photos, thanks to Internet

The Internet has claimed one of its highest profile victims yet: As of March 2016, Playboy magazine will no longer feature fully nude models. This follows on from August last year, when the Playboy website also stopped publishing nude photos and videos. Yes, you'll now be able to read Hugh Hefner's flagship publication, which published its first nude centrefold way back in 1953, just for the articles.

Speaking to The New York Times, Playboy CEO Scott Flanders explained the reasoning behind the change: "You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture." Basically, Playboy stems from a time when nudity was racy and exciting; today, it's de rigueur. The circulation figures illustrate that fact nicely: from a peak of around 5.6 million subscribers in 1975, Playboy is now down to around 800,000.

The decision to revamp the magazine is no doubt predicated on last year's decision to remove nudity from the Playboy website. In 2014, before the change, the Playboy website had about 4 million users with an average age of 47; today, with no nudity, the site has about 16 million users with an average age of "just over 30."