Bye Bye Print Penthouse

[R. Richard]

Penthouse halts magazine after 50 years, goes digital

Parent company FriendFinder Networks Inc. said Penthouse magazine will henceforth be released in online-only format and that subscriptions would be converted to digital

Parent company FriendFinder Networks Inc. said Penthouse magazine will henceforth be released in online-only format and that subscriptions would be converted to digital (AFP Photo/)

New York (AFP) - Adult magazine Penthouse will end its print edition after 50 years, becoming the latest publication to go exclusively digital.

Parent company FriendFinder Networks Inc. said the magazine will henceforth be released in online-only format and that subscriptions would be converted to digital.

"This will be a new way for its readers to experience the world's best adult magazine," said FriendFinder chief executive Jonathan Buckheit in a statement.

"Reimagined for the preferred consumption of content today by consumers, the digital version of Penthouse Magazine will combine and convert everything readers know and love about the print magazine experience to the power of a digital experience -- giving people an open-ended reading experience, available anytime, anywhere."

The magazine division, which operated out of New York, will move to the company's Los Angeles-based office.

Besides publishing Penthouse, FriendFinder Networks operates a number of adult-oriented social networking sites including AdultFriendFinder.com, Amigos.com, AsiaFriendFinder.com and SeniorFriendFinder.com.

The group filed for bankruptcy protection in 2013.

Bob Guccione began publication of Penthouse in Britain in 1965 and four years later in the United States, earning him a fortune estimated at $400 million at one point with a more explicit alternative to Hugh Hefner's Playboy.

But as the Internet became dominant in porn, Penthouse publisher General Media Inc., which was 85 percent owned by Guccione, filed for bankruptcy in 2003, which led to its acquisition by FriendFinder Networks.

Guccione died in 2010 after a battle with cancer.

Playboy last year said it will stop publishing nude photos in its iconic magazine, throwing in the towel in the face of rampant online pornography.

Playboy, which broke lifestyle taboos in the 1950s with bare-breasted pictures in a magazine for the mass market, said the publication will see "a top-to-bottom redesign" that will be unveiled with its March edition.

 

[sr71plt]

Is this your summary of an article or a copyright violation reposting of the article?

 

[Areala-chan]

Looks to me more like a press release, which are often meant to be plastered about willy-nilly.

 

[sr71plt]

If it was a giveaway, there should be a dateline giving that information. I tracked it down. It's from the subscription French news agency, AFP. Some posters here--and the Web site itself--pretty much ignore copyright violations despite Forum Rule #3 prohibiting it. This flies in the face of this being the authors' area of the Web site and authors being the ones with the greatest interest in protecting copyright--theirs and, unless they are totally selfish, that of their fellow writers. We occasionally (and just recently) have threads about stories here being ripped off and posted elsewhere. Well, guess what this is.

How difficult can it be to give a gist summary and a link to the original?

 

[DwellerDark]

Thank God we can finally get our porn online now, thanks to Penthouse.

 

[Handley_Page]

Penthouse used to be a good man's mag (in opposition to Mayfair).
Then the mighty Bob Guccione sold it, but apparently kept some Rule or other.
Come the day when the new lady editor got into serious bother with the Law and the mighty Bob took back control.
Frankly, I didn't think it recovered.

I still think that there's a place for a decent men's mag.

 

[49greg]

Now those college kids are going to have to find glossy paper and a big color printer if they want to tape a centerfold up on their dorm room walls.

Of course then they won't have staple holes and folds to ruin the effect LOL.

Yes, I'm an old geezer, and the only reason I didn't have a bunch of centerfolds in my dorm room was that I couldn't afford to buy Penthouse or Playboy magazines. My budget just didn't have room for them, so I had to gaze at other peoples'.

 

[NoJo]

Penthouse got me started. My brother had a collection by his bed which I used to sneakily peruse at a very young age. Women with big tits and nice, furry pussies. And I got my first taste of BDSM with "Oh, Wicked Wanda", which still has to be the sexiest porn comic I've read.
Real top-shelf porn.

 

[sr71plt]

Now those college kids are going to have to find glossy paper and a big color printer if they want to tape a centerfold up on their dorm room walls.

Of course then they won't have staple holes and folds to ruin the effect LOL.

Yes, I'm an old geezer, and the only reason I didn't have a bunch of centerfolds in my dorm room was that I couldn't afford to buy Penthouse or Playboy magazines. My budget just didn't have room for them, so I had to gaze at other peoples'.

That was my first thought on the content of the report. But does anyone tape pinups to their walls anymore? I wonder if that's something the computer has made obsolete.

 

[lovecraft68]

That was my first thought on the content of the report. But does anyone tape pinups to their walls anymore? I wonder if that's something the computer has made obsolete.

Not really, throughout the factory part of my company there's calendar's all over the walls featuring scantily clad women. Outright nudes, no but because of company policy not that they wouldn't do it.

The penthouse thing is no surprise on the heel of Playboy going that way as well. Hell, comic books are not long for this world in print form despite the large number of die hard collectors out there.

 

[Areala-chan]

Hell, comic books are not long for this world in print form despite the large number of die hard collectors out there.

You shut your dirty, whore mouth, Lovecraft!

 

[Handley_Page]

That was my first thought on the content of the report. But does anyone tape pinups to their walls anymore? I wonder if that's something the computer has made obsolete.

I have a couple of very pretty lady pictures on the wall in my shack.
I'm not keen on them being too lurid.

 

[lovecraft68]

You shut your dirty, whore mouth, Lovecraft!

Oh, I like it when you verbally degrade me.

When I closed my comic store in 2008 the economy was sinking and Marvel and DC were raising prices and making crossovers that spanned every title in their library, people couldn't afford to read anymore.

The marvel started digital comic subscriptions you could read unlimited titles for x dollars a month. Old school collectors want the books, but kids? They've grown up paperless.

The old dogs who want the book in their hands are all that's keeping it going, but print runs are going down and the fact that new comics are mostly worthless for industry reasons I won't bore people with, its going down.

Marvel has been adding their entire golden and silver age collections on the online subscriptions as well.

 

[sr71plt]

I would think that collectors holding stacks of old comics would be delighted if comics stopped coming out in print. It's called a retirement plan.

 

[lovecraft68]

I would think that collectors holding stacks of old comics would be delighted if comics stopped coming out in print. It's called a retirement plan.

You noticed I wasn't really complaining.

 

[Areala-chan]

I would think that collectors holding stacks of old comics would be delighted if comics stopped coming out in print. It's called a retirement plan.

It's still only a retirement plan if you're sitting on Golden or Silver age stuff, signatures that are now impossible to get, or very high-grade, modern-age comics that went up in value for a specific reason, usually the first appearance of a now-iconic character (Incredible Hulk #180 for Wolverine, New Mutants #98 for Deadpool, blah blah blah).

Unless your definition of 'retirement plan' is 'saving money on heating by burning my collection in lieu of wood' or something; nearly everything from the 80's through the 2000's is barely worth the paper it's printed on. Might as well open 'em up again and enjoy the stories.

Dang it, my inner geek is running all over the place going 'Squeeee!' again. Sorry about that...I'll give her a manga to read over in the corner. That should shut her up for a little while.

*huggles*
Areala-chan

 

[sr71plt]

It's still only a retirement plan if you're sitting on Golden or Silver age stuff, signatures that are now impossible to get, or very high-grade, modern-age comics that went up in value for a specific reason, usually the first appearance of a now-iconic character (Incredible Hulk #180 for Wolverine, New Mutants #98 for Deadpool, blah blah blah).

I think it will all go up. (I did say you'd have to be sitting on a stack of them.) I'm doing quite well on postwar Japanese block prints. The artist dies and the price zooms, because it's now a closed shop.

 

[lovecraft68]

It's still only a retirement plan if you're sitting on Golden or Silver age stuff, signatures that are now impossible to get, or very high-grade, modern-age comics that went up in value for a specific reason, usually the first appearance of a now-iconic character (Incredible Hulk #180 for Wolverine, New Mutants #98 for Deadpool, blah blah blah).

Unless your definition of 'retirement plan' is 'saving money on heating by burning my collection in lieu of wood' or something; nearly everything from the 80's through the 2000's is barely worth the paper it's printed on. Might as well open 'em up again and enjoy the stories.

Dang it, my inner geek is running all over the place going 'Squeeee!' again. Sorry about that...I'll give her a manga to read over in the corner. That should shut her up for a little while.

*huggles*
Areala-chan

I have close to 600 Golden age to early silver age comics including over 200 EC comics many of those were from a collection I bought 25 years ago and average 6.0.

When the store opened Walking Dead had just come out and no one was buying it Diamond-the distributor-offered free copies of number three, after I read it I ordered two dozen copies of number one and two telling my wife that the title was going to erupt.

I sold a CGC 9.8 copy for $1500 the week the show debuted. BTW my store's 15 minutes of fame came when it-and I-was mentioned in the letters page of Walking Dead number ten because I was pushing the series at anyone who would listen.

Grimms fairy tales is another modern comic I jumped that has value. I also had a hunch on Locke and Key and ordered a bunch of number ones that I saved. When "Joe Hill" came out as Steven Kings son that book went insane.

But in general you're right, the 80's brought in huge print runs and the problem with modern comics is they keep starting and re-starting series, that and they create nothing new anymore-at least not Marvel and DC, everything is rehashes and 'new spins" for the big two the comics are only props to support the movies.

ETA-because my inner geek demands it Hulk #181 is the Wolverine money book and widely seen as his first appearance even though there's a cameo in 180.

 

[Areala-chan]

ETA-because my inner geek demands it Hulk #181 is the Wolverine money book and widely seen as his first appearance even though there's a cameo in 180.

Teach me to trust my inner geek's fading memory, that will.

 

[lovecraft68]

I think it will all go up. (I did say you'd have to be sitting on a stack of them.) I'm doing quite well on postwar Japanese block prints. The artist dies and the price zooms, because it's now a closed shop.

I know, I had landed a stack of original Jack Kirby art in a basement buy out in the mid eighties, when he died in 1994 I sold two thirds of it and used it to put a down payment on a house.

In comics-for the quick strike more so than long haul-its following the movies and knowing the first appearance associated with the characters.

For instance Astonishing tales 27 saw a big boost when people started talking about the ant man movie

The thing is its idiotic to be the buyer because it sky rockets then a few months later is dead because they are onto the next movie.

 

[lovecraft68]

Teach me to trust my inner geek's fading memory, that will.

I'll let it slide, bub

 

[J_R_Ashunwhy]

***deleted***

 

[litfan10]

You shut your dirty, whore mouth, Lovecraft!

My first reaction to LC's comic prediction was similar to this - but man, you put it perfectly Areala-chan! Well said.

Actually I don't agree with you LC - comics are vertical and computers are still a horizontal world. Add to this the style and size of most comic lettering and you get a visual experience far from satisfactory on a computer screen. A reading tablet might work but again the lettering is small - you have to enlarge past the normal page size, so you can't take it all in at once as you can with the print version.

I have plenty of digital comics from comixology and humble bundle but other than Motorcycle Samurai (which is produced horizontally and with animation) it is not nearly as pleasurable or practical.

I'm sure the technology will eventually catch up with comics, but I don't see any of the publishers really making the effort other then as a sales platform.

As for Penthouse - maybe, maybe I might have had a fancy to buy a copy seeing it on the spin rack at my local convenience store - but there's no way I would ever be at my computer and think 'Gee, I think I'll check out the latest issue of Penthouse.' I see no growth for them. Not that they really had any left in print form either.

 

[lovecraft68]

My first reaction to LC's comic prediction was similar to this - but man, you put it perfectly Areala-chan! Well said.

Actually I don't agree with you LC - comics are vertical and computers are still a horizontal world. Add to this the style and size of most comic lettering and you get a visual experience far from satisfactory on a computer screen. A reading tablet might work but again the lettering is small - you have to enlarge past the normal page size, so you can't take it all in at once as you can with the print version.

I have plenty of digital comics from comixology and humble bundle but other than Motorcycle Samurai (which is produced horizontally and with animation) it is not nearly as pleasurable or practical.

I'm sure the technology will eventually catch up with comics, but I don't see any of the publishers really making the effort other then as a sales platform.

As for Penthouse - maybe, maybe I might have had a fancy to buy a copy seeing it on the spin rack at my local convenience store - but there's no way I would ever be at my computer and think 'Gee, I think I'll check out the latest issue of Penthouse.' I see no growth for them. Not that they really had any left in print form either.

There is no growth for them. but a hell of a lot less expensive. The thing is if I'm going to go online to look at naked women I am going to go for full out porn, not just pics. Pics you can find here on lit, in countless threads and with every fetish.

As for the digital comics, the issue is when you're young-which we're not-and everything you know is on a device then the shoddy way they come out doesn't look that shoddy.

Just like paperbacks. Us 'old folk' can talk about how much we love books, to hold them, read them, collect them, but the average (of course there are exceptions depending on what the parents give them) kid is already reading on a kindle or their laptop or tablet.

Let's see I need a book case for a hundred books, but I got five hundred on my tablet...oh and many for free.

Eventually we'll be a paperless society with everything that is paper branded a collectible.

 

[RejectReality]

Damn the multi-cover, special edition, cross-over market flood 90s for killing comic book prices

At least I got in under the wire and managed to finance my first computer, plus do some emergency repairs on my car with the proceeds from a tiny part of my collection.

I probably couldn't get as much for the lot nowadays as I got from about 50 copies of 70s and 80s issues back then.

I'd have been in trouble back in the day without print porn. The way I kept the guys in line was threatening to revoke their "library card" to the backpack full of Playboy and Penthouse mags I'd acquired, including the Dana Plato issue of Playboy.

Imagine my amusement when I read that the newly-elected mayor of my hometown was someone who used to borrow from that library regularly.

Guys coming of age these days will never know the wonder of stumbling across someone's nudie book stash hidden in the garage, or the attic, or the hollow of a tree. Kind of sad.