Playboy doesn’t speak to men today; online rivals do

Years ago men would joke that they read Playboy magazine for the articles.
But aside from tasteful nude photographs of beautiful women, the content of Playboy didn’t appeal to that many men. The magazine was built around the passions of its founder, Hugh Hefner, so there were lots of articles about jazz music and cocktails.
But for modern guys who like rock music and beer, Playboy was appealing only for the naked ladies. Take away that, as the magazine did last spring, and you’ve got little to recommend to guys.
Now Playboy is just like Maxim in the twilight of the lad mags. And magazine readership is in decline.
So now young men turn to online publishers like Arsenic and Thrillist for interesting editorial content.
Playboy looked into buying Arsenic last spring but those efforts weren’t successful. Arsenic is an upstart media company that crowdsources images of sexy women and posts them on Instagram and Snapchat.
Thrillist is another digital media property that’s drawing an audience that Playboy covets: millennial men. Its coverage areas include travel, food and drink, tech products and entertainment. Like other disparaged digital media sites it has a lot of listicles and clickbaity headlines. But the content is approachable and engaging, aimed at mainstream men, not metrosexuals, foodies, connoisseurs and the like.

Photos: Women posing for Arsenic Magazine on Instagram.