What the Hef? Playboy Magazine to Abandon Full Nudity

Change will be part of a print redesign scheduled for March 2016

Playboy magazine is putting the clothes back on.

Executives for the magazine’s parent company revealed that the publication will no longer publish fully nude photos of women as part of an upcoming redesign in a piece published Monday by the New York Times.

The change will take effect in March 2016.

According to the Times, Playboy editor Cory Jones approached magazine founder Hugh Hefner last month with the idea to drop nude photos from the print edition. Hefner, who is still listed on the masthead as editor in chief, gave the idea his blessing.

“You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free,” Playboy CEO Scott Flanders told the paper. “And so it’s just passé at this juncture.”

Playboy’s print circulation, once measured in millions, is now about 800,000, according to Alliance for Audited Media.

The magazine will still include photo spreads of women in provocative poses. But the move marks the latest step away from depictions of nudity, which were banned from the magazine’s website last August.

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