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Jimmy Jellinek in 2010. (Chicago Magazine)
Playboy Enterprises on Wednesday sought to downplay speculation that its headquarters were headed for the West Coast, despite the fact that its editorial director is moving there.
Jimmy Jellinek, editorial director and chief content officer, posted on Facebook this morning that he was moving to Los Angeles in August. Shortly thereafter, the post was taken down, according to Time out Chicago. Get the full story »
Forbes | Playboy is coming to the iPad in the all-together starting in March, according to a tweet from Hugh Hefner.
A couple from the Brooklyn borough of New York part of the Playboy network adult reality program "Brooklyn Kinda Love." (AP/Playboy TV)
For generations, Playboy’s image has been “Entertainment for Men.” Now, it’s TV network wants these men to watch their movies and shows with their wives and women friends.
The premium cable network, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, is starting “TV for 2,” slightly steamy programming designed for women and men to experience together. The idea was unwrapped over the weekend with the premiere of “Brooklyn Kinda Love,” a reality series made by the producers of HBO’s “Taxicab Confessions.” Get the full story »
Playboy will be taken private under an agreement with Icon Acquisition Holdings, a limited partnership controlled by founder Hugh Hefner, left. (LATimes)
By Robert Channick | More than 57 years after launching Playboy from his South Side apartment, Hugh Hefner is buying back the bunny.
After six months of deliberation, an improved offer to take Playboy Enterprises private at $6.15 a share passed muster with the board, which voted Sunday to return the magazine empire to its 84-year-old founder.
Shares of Playboy spiked nearly 18 percent on Monday. Get the full story »
February marks the start of the year of the rabbit in the Chinese lunar calendar.
It may be an auspicious sign for Playboy Enterprises Inc., which opened a nightclub in Macau last month as it seeks to expand its business by licensing the trademark bunny head logo on lifestyle products in Asia, its fastest growing region.
The company, founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953, also plans to open a Playboy Mansion in 2012 in Macau, a former Portuguese colony on the southern coast of China, and has been busy cutting deals to sell Playboy-branded merchandise across Asia.
From The Street | Playboy Enterprises shares were up 1.5 percent in afternoon trading Wednesday after Caris analyst David Miller upgraded the company to above average from average, and raised his price target to $6.50 from $5 on his belief that founder Hugh Hefner has the means to take the company private. Get the full story>>
From the BBC | A Dali watercolour of a reclining nude that once hung in Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s bedroom has fetched $266,500 at a New York auction. The nude, featured in a 1967 issues of Playboy and not expected to get more $150,000, was among 125 artworks owned by the magazine to go under the hammer at Christie’s.
Wednesday’s sale included 80 photos and 24 cartoons, a fraction of the magazine’s archives stored in a warehouse in Chicago. Get the full story>>
From Time Magazine | With this week’s opening of the Playboy Club Macao, Playboy CEO Scott Flanders said he is confident he’s found a place for the iconic company in the digital age. Instead of relying on American men buying magazines and watching cable, the company’s profits will depend on two seemingly unlikely demographics: Asian women and cosmopolitan clubgoers. Get the full story>>
The stock market is poised to perform well in 2011, but the job market … not so much. That was economic outlook offered by several Chicago-area business experts at a forum Wednesday evening, where some also demanded that city and state politicians tackle swelling fiscal problems.
“I spend a lot of time talking with [company executives] and almost without exception in the last six weeks of the earnings season, the calls have been going better and better,” said John Rogers Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Ariel Investments. “The CEOs seem more confident, the balance sheets are strengthened and they are starting to talk about hiring again.” Get the full story »
Playboy Enterprises Inc. reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss as revenue from its entertainment, and print and digital businesses continued to decline, but said it expects Playboy magazine advertising pages to rise about 7 percent in the current quarter. Get the full story »
A Dali watercolor of a reclining nude that hung in Hugh Hefner’s bedroom is among 125 artworks being auctioned by the magazine known for baring all for nearly 60 years. The sale includes 80 photographs, more than a dozen contemporary works and 24 cartoons.
The Dec. 8 auction at Christie’s is dubbed “The Year of the Rabbit.” Founder and editor-in-chief Hefner said the magazine that has entertained, titillated and informed with its commissioned art has blurred the lines between fine and popular art.
“Playboy helped to change the very direction of commercial art — breaking down the wall between fine art and commercial art,” the 84-year-old Hefner told The Associated Press in an interview at his Los Angeles mansion. Get the full story »
Playboy Enterprises Inc. said Thursday that it expects to book a non-cash charge in excess of $20 million related to its television programming inventory in the third quarter that ended Sept. 30. Get the full story »
Playboy Enterprises Inc. is looking to sublease its headquarters space at 680 N. Lake Shore Drive.
The company confirmed this morning that it hired real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield to sublease the 15th and 16th floors of the building because the space “is too big for us,” said spokeswoman Martha Lindeman.
Lindeman said the company has not started looking for a new home to relocate its 245 full-time employees. “We haven’t made any plans at all,” she said. Get the full story »
From the Yorkshire Evening Post | Almost 30 years since its original club closed in London, Playboy Enterprises said it return to London next year in Mayfair. The new Playboy Club will include a restaurant, cocktail bar and casino, spread over two floors. The return has been discussed for at least a decade but now Playboy and its partner London Clubs International say they will open the venue in the first half of 2011. Get the full story>>
Suzi Hanks reads Playboy's articles -- and describes the pictures -- for Taping for the Blind in Texas. (AP)
Suzi Hanks reads Playboy magazine for the articles. And the jokes. And the letters and cartoons. And yes, for the pictures. Each week, for an hour, Hanks snuggles close to a microphone in a tiny soundproof closet, reading — and describing in great detail — portions of the latest Playboy issue for the blind.
“I don’t have to try to read it sexy,” laughs Hanks, one of about 200 volunteers at Houston-based Taping For The Blind Inc. “I just read it, and I’m a woman, and that’s pretty much sexy. Get the full story »
