Ever wanted to be able to access every issue of Playboy magazine published since December 1953 on your iPad? Even if just for the articles?

You’re in luck: Playboy Enterprises, the media company behind the magazine, this morning announced a web-based subscription service that gives users the opportunity to read, search and explore every single Playboy issue.

Beware: link to ‘iPlayboy’ above is potentially NSFW, depending on where you W.

Also, the subscription service was actually supposed to launch in March, but hey.

Pricing ranges from $4.95 for 3 days of access to $8.99 per month for a full year.

Update: that is the pricing I could see, but a Playboy rep tells me subscription pricing is actually $8 per month, $60 per year and $100 for two years. Here’s the updated link.

From the press release:

From the inaugural issue with Marilyn Monroe to the current issue with rock heiress Lizzy Jagger on the cover, iPlayboy features every pictorial, interview, Centerfold, investigative reporting piece, story, advertisement and image that ever appeared in the magazine, more than 130,000 pages in total.

Readers can search for a groundbreaking interview they read years ago, find classic fiction, or read about the most-recent celebrity cover model, all in one place.

The site will be updated with each monthly issue so that it includes current content as well as archival features and pictorials.

Well Woop-dee-doo Basil!

Playboy Enterprises, the world-famous adult entertainment and media company, is to “go private” again.

The media company, which of course publishes the Playboy magazine but also runs an Internet business segment called Playboy Online, alongside TV and radio networks, will be taken private for $6.15 per share by Icon Acquisition Holdings.

The latter is a limited partnership controlled by iconic Playboy Enterprises founder Hugh Hefner (who also just got engaged, hurray!). Playboy originally went public in 1971.

The $6.15 price represents a 18.3% premium over the closing price Friday, January 7, and a 56.1% premium over the closing price on July 9, 2010, the last trading day before the proposal was first announced.

Icon Acquisition Holdings has obtained equity commitments for the transaction from an affiliate of Rizvi Traverse Management and a debt commitment for the transaction from affiliates of Jefferies & Company.

Playboy CEO Scott Flanders will remain with the company in his current position and maintain a significant equity investment in Playboy. He says the strategy is to transform the struggling Playboy into a full-fledged brand management company:

“This transaction will advance our efforts by strengthening our balance sheet and streamlining our operations, while creating opportunities to participate in new ventures. I am excited about the future, and I look forward to working with our new partners as we guide Playboy into the next era.”

More details on the transaction are available in the press release.

What is it with the combination of video games and hot chicks? Oh yeah, they both appeal to young, sweaty men. Playboy.com is getting into the online video game business through a partnership with Bigpoint Games. The first game will be Poisonville, which is kind of like a browser-based version of Grand Theft Auto, except that the characters are “beautiful, Playboy-caliber women.”

Poisonville is a 3D, massively multiplayer game where you are part of a gang of Playboy models who shoot the cops and blow things up. Yeah. Enjoy the trailer below.

I don’t think they got the formula quite right. What Playboy should do is team up with GameCrush, and charge their young, sweaty customers a gazillion dollars to play Poisonville against real live Playboy bunnies.

Zivity is a great site for women and photographers who aren’t afraid to get a little racy to express themselves and potentially be discovered. That said, they obviously don’t have the reach of something like Playboy. But thanks to a new partnership between the two, interested women can potentially get the best of both worlds.

Playboy will host a series of contests on Zivity, the winners of which will get to appear on Playboy.com. The Playboy community will choose themes for each of these contests. Here are some of the ones already being thrown out there: “Hottest Super Heroes,” “Show Your Lady Gaga,” “Suits and Stockings,” “Glistening Lips,” “Babes in Boots,” “Downy Hairs,” “Girls with Glasses” — you get the idea.

The winners for each contest will be chosen by the Playboy community (starting late September/early October), and Zivity teases that certain models are likely to get scouted to appear in Playboy magazine or other Playboy ventures as well.

Women who are interested simply need to sign up for a Zivity account and start making some custom photo shoots for the contests. Models have to be 19 years old, while the photographers have to be 18. Zivity and Playboy are looking for professional-amateur to professional level photography for the contest and pictures have to have been shot with DSLR cameras.

Playboy has been struggling of late as the move online continues to eat away at the core ad sales at the magazine. There is even some talk that founder Hugh Hefner may attempt to buy back all the shares and take it private once again. But while the business may be struggling, the brand remains huge, so this is a big win for Zivity and their community.

I do wonder, years from now, what Future Man will think of human beings of the year 2010? Will he think we did the best we could, or will he look at things like 3D Playboy magazine and be like, “Yeah, we’re shocked the species survived as long as it did. Why didn’t, like, squirrels take over?”

So yeah, Playboy, which is somehow still around in the age of the Internet, will have a 3D issue that goes on sale on Friday. It comes with a pair of old school, blue-red 3D glasses, so, you know, you can stare at a model’s bosoms in “3D.”

Nice to see we’re putting our brain to good use.

The model who has been 3D-ified is Hope Dworaczyk, a 25-year-old American lass.

Instead, the app features easy access to some of the main articles in the magazine each month. And it does so in a very slick and sexy way, the app is among the fastest I’ve seen in terms of transition between the different areas. The app also shows you who the featured Playmate of the month is, but all you get is the introduction, the data sheet (which I’m actually kind of surprised Apple even let through), and a series of sexy, but clothed photos. Each Playmate also has a video about their shoot, but again, no nudity.

The plan is for the app to use in-app purchasing so that you can easily buy hard copies of older issues. But that apparently won’t be available until the next version of the app hits next week on the same day that the next issue of Playboy goes on sale. Humorously, to buy other things from Playboy, the app makes you go to the web, with a warning that you’ll be entering a page that contains content which may not be appropriate for children under 17. Of course, anyone with an iPhone can browse to that site directly without the warning from Apple.

Despite apps like this, Apple continues to straddle a difficult line of hypocrisy with regard to the App Store approval process. For example, apps that do satire are rejected, while apps that allow you to see up the skirts of asian girls are just fine. Also fine: Apps that simply showcase Asian Boobs, which is the name of the app. Oh, and Mein Kampf is also fine. But there can be no nudity in an app for a magazine known for its nudity. That kind of stuff which you see today in PG-13 movies is just too much for a device which has built-in parental controls.

The app is $1.99 in the App Store. You can find it here.

During an earnings call earlier today, Playboy Enterprises‘ interim CEO Jerome Kern (who replaced Hugh Hefner’s daughter Christie after she stepped down last December) didn’t really have any uplifting news to share. The publishing company reported a $13.7 million net loss during the first quarter of 2009, more than 3 times the loss it took during the same period in 2008 ($4.2 million). Athough, we should note Kern indicated that the loss includes $8.7 million of “impairment and restructuring charges”.

In October 2008, Playboy laid off over a quarter of its workforce, axed its DVD business and its New York office and consequently merged its print and online operations to reduce costs significantly.

“These initiatives allowed us to offset all but $1.4 million of the nearly $17 million revenue decline and led to improved margins in our TV and digital businesses, despite a lower revenue base,” said Kern.

Lower revenue base, indeed. Revenues went down a whopping 26 percent compared to the same period in 2008, with digital revenue dropping to a lousy $9.3 million, down from $15.2 million during the first quarter last year. This was in big part due to the fact that Playboy decided to outsource its e-commerce operations. Domestic print didn’t perform all that well either, with reported revenue falling back to $13.5 million (down from $16.5 million during the first quarter of 2008). Total revenues for the period were $61.8 million, down more than 20 percent from $78.5 million a year ago.

The decline in revenues for Playboy is significant, and like so many others companies it is really struggling in this economy on all fronts of its business, and its publishing segment in particular. Fortunately, Playboy’s interim CEO has a brilliant game plan to save the print business from fading away:

From Folio:

“During the call, Kern said Playboy is considering “radical changes” of the print business model, including price increases, a frequency reduction and lowering its rate base of 2.6 million. The company said it would combine Playboy’s July and August issues into a double issue.”

That’s right, people! Fewer and fewer subscribers are opening Playboy’s magazines, and companies buying ad pages barely make up for the mere cost of printing and distributing them, but they’ve finally found the perfect solution to all their problems: charging more for fewer issues. Looking ahead, the company said it expects to report a 39% decline in magazine ad revenues in the second quarter compared to last year.

Anyone ever seen Blackadder? I think this memorable quote from an episode of the fourth season of that great TV series captivates my thoughts on this: “If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through.”

Ten bucks says Playboy magazine doesn’t last as a standalone business.

What shocks me is the small scale of the operation. Their entire DVD division is being axed and it’s 55 jobs. This is Playboy we’re talking about here! And their yearly revenue is around $70-80 million. Why, I could buy and sell them 10 times over! Actually, no. But I’d like to. Interestingly, they’re focusing on Playboy fragrances. Who wants to smell like… whatever that is?
[via HardOCP]

I do not understand. What’s the point of having a Playboy-branded cellphone if it doesn’t have photos of unattainable naked ladies pre-loaded onto it? Is the idea that some future bunny will see the logo and be overcome with the idea of posing for me, so that I might shoot her nude form with the included 1.3 megapixel camera?

I guess it’s a decent looking phone, including the purplish colorization, but the branding has me confused. Playboy is supposed to be simple, there’s a lifestyle around the brand that basically says “naked chicks”. This phone does not.

Put on your creative thinking caps, fellas. Following the launch of Playboy Mobile last week, THQ announced “Playboy Games: Pool Party” for mobile phones that let you customize your own Playmates and have them compete in pool-related activities. The Playmate Editor allows you to be as pervy as you want so you can create a voluptuous playmate to compete in various challenges, which will in turn, create the right mood for the pool party. It launches in July. Hopefully we get the launch party invite. *wink, wink*

In the interest of human dignity, I will spare you any “funny” jokes about this Playboy cellphone. The only thing that makes it a Playboy phone is the logo on the front. That’s it.

And on top of that, it’s a pretty terrible phone for 2008. Only a 1.3-megapixl cam and 10MB onboard memory. You have heard of the iPhone, right? I hear it’s pretty good.

via Gizmodo

Doug Aamoth and Peter Ha here in Hugh Hefner’s private loft on the 34th floor of the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. Nine girls will be competing for the title of “Miss Mobile Playboy” as a kickoff to Playboy’s second generation of mobile content.

First up is the iPhone version of Playboy.com called iPlayboy. It’s already up and running — just go to Playboy.com on your iPhone.

There will also be some upcoming social networking features for Playboy mobile and various content partnerships that’ll be announced in the near future.

The winner will be announced at midnight tonight and gets a crown, $5000, the title of “Miss Playboy Mobile,” and a trip to the Playboy Mansion for a photo shoot.

Your finalists are…

Kristen Wilson – Orlando, FL

Micaela Bartolome – Oakland, CA

Alexandra Fowler – Duluth, MN

Amber Lane – Boca Raton, FL

Heather Leigh Cleary – Fort Lauderdale, FL

Felicia Taylor – Philadelphia, PA

Amber James – Seattle, WA

Tanya Lind – Los Angeles, CA

Rachael Schultz – Longmont, CO

And the winner is…

Amber James of Seattle. Congratulations Amber!

Photos by Peter Ha

I was skeptical when Playboy launched its exclusive social network for college students in August called PlayboyU, mostly because Hef’s adult entertainment empire had chosen merely to brand a standard Ning website. While it’s questionable to me whether a corporate brand can ever sustain a large and active social network, it just didn’t seem like the company was trying very hard to leverage its assets and create a uniquely Playboy social networking experience.

In apparent response to disappointing engagement levels (PlayboyU had about 5,000 members in early November and, as of writing, only 12 “site activity” items in the last 12 hours), Playboy is pushing a fairly lengthy survey on its “charter members” through email and on-site ads. It asks questions about social network usage, Playboy brand perceptions and, most importantly, the appeal of integrating magazine content into the social network (although with little emphasis on nudity, suggesting that Playboy is still wary of turning PlayboyU into an outlet for soft pornography).

Among the types of content considered by the survey are cartoons, music picks, advice from Playboy experts, behind the scenes footage of Playboy events, Playmate and “Girls of” profiles, excerpts from “The Girls Next Door” show, fashion pages, and party jokes. Playboy is also apparently weighing the option of creating a “public” site for college age adults that would provide not only traditional Playboy content but serve as a resource like Princeton Review with guides to campus life and ranking systems, as well as “original editorial and video segments related to college life.” This second site would probably not replace PlayboyU, since the registration requirement of a “.edu” email address is one – if not the – selling point of the current social network (see the video created by a site representative below).

It’s too early to tell whether this survey will amount to any real changes to PlayboyU, although the company is obviously exploring ways to improve the social network by taking it in new directions. We’ll just have to see what Playboy comes up with in 2008, and whether it finds Ning to be flexible enough for its attempts at differentiation.

While Alice Mathias may have overplayed the frivolous uses of Facebook for college students in her article called The Fakebook Generation published in the Grey Lady a few weeks ago, she was certainly correct in saying that Facebook lost a certain je ne sais quoi for students when it opened up to the real world last fall.

So instead of trying to take this $15 billion animal head on, as one $222 billion beast is attempting to do, startups might be wise to try capturing the niche that Facebook has intentionally left behind. Of course, there are a handful of reasons to think there will never be another social network that catches on so quickly and so thoroughly with college students. Namely, Facebook itself, which still holds the attention of the vast majority of college students. Personally, I think any company that tries to create a social network for college students faces a very steep uphill battle. But you can’t blame them for trying.

Let’s say you did want to capitalize on students’ (growing?) discontent with the “mature” Facebook; what strategy would you follow? You’d probably want to take a few pages out of Facebook’s own, er, book by restricting membership to users with .edu email addresses, gradually opening up to elite schools, and keeping things stupidly simple. But you’d also have to provide something particularly unique, useful, or entertaining that tempts mainstream Facebook users to jump ship.

We’ve taken a look at the websites out there claiming that they are the next “it” social network for college students. And we’ve got to say: overall, we’re not terribly impressed. Only one stands out – a website called College Tonight – and this because of its novel attempt to bring social networking back into the real world. College Tonight is well-designed and has some features you won’t find in other social networks, such as an area for lost and found items at your school and a place to “drunk dial” with messages you can take back in the morning (if you’re up and out of bed in time). The company behind this site, which launches Monday, also has a set of undisclosed features in the works that tempt us into believing that they might actually appeal enough to college students to survive. We’ll have to write more about them later once we’re more informed.

The other decent site among the bunch is Carmun, a site that encourages students to help each other study. Students post questions they have about essays and tests the are studying for, and others hypothetically help them find the answers and information they need. While the site is attractive enough, I don’t see many students helping other students with the homework no one wants to do.

The rest of them are either really badly designed, ghost towns, gimmicks, or abandoned by their owners (plus, most don’t require .edu addresses to register so what’s the point?). Let’s take a look:

ConnectU – This site was created by the very same Harvard students currently in court with Facebook over whether or not Mark Zuckerberg stole their code. It’s poorly designed, not very functional, and doesn’t look like it’s been updated significantly for a long time.

CollegeHotList – An NYU project that has not yet launched…and probably will never launch (I’ve seen talk on the internet about it that dates back to early 2006).

PlayboyU – A social network built on Ning but branded by Playboy that has only 5,000-some members after launching on August 22. The whole thing feels like a gimmick, and many of the profiles appear to be fake (there’s no way that many attractive people signed up on their own). There’s very little value added by its association with Playboy.

CampusMatch – A romantically-themed college social network that dates back quite a few years and is almost certainly abandoned. It’s too bad too, because a college network with a focus on love/hooking up has a lot of potential.

CampusGrind – This one has a cluttered design and serves more as an information center for teens, with its advice columns, than a true social network.

CampusBug – A site overwhelmed by its sponsorships and overloaded with educational tools like a bibliography creator and flashcards.

CampusCentral – It’s not a good sign when the copyright at the bottom of your pages says 2005. This one’s a ghost town, and tailored to Canadian students, too.

CrushTV – This one’s filled mostly with video and photographic content provided by the site itself. While having videos of babes in bikinis will draw some eyeballs, don’t expect many college students to stay too long.

LifeAtCollege – Awful, awful design.

College.com – Packed with too many extraneous features like sections for news, academics, and greek life. Plus, who wants to rate their professors in their social network?

Uspot – Launched in early 2006…now says “We’ll be back shortly…” on homepage. Not good.

So there you have it. Now who’s going to step up to the plate and give college students an attractive alternative to Facebook? As you can see, you won’t have much competition aside from maybe College Tonight. So get on it, my collegiate friends.

Well, this is a big win for build-your-own-social-network Ning, which just raised a massive round of funding. The new Playboy social network we covered earlier today is actually built on Ning, not self-built code or one of the many other white label social networking options available.

Once you actually sign up for the site it becomes clear it’s Ning, since their pervasive toolbar remains at the top of the site. Users actually use their Ning address to log in. You must have a .edu address to get an invitation, but you can then sign up using any Ning account.

Whether or not this network is successful, it’s great validation for Ning.

Can you join if you’re not in college? No. You need a .edu e-mail address. What if you’re a greasy professor or faculty member with a .edu address? Playboy says you’ll be kicked off the site. So assuming you’re a legitimate college student, once you’re signed up you can log in and share all the sexy, torrid photos of people crushing ass at your latest mixer, right? No. Nudity’s not allowed on the site. No nudity? Smooth move, Playboy.

Basically, it’s a place where you can post (non-naked) incriminating party photos that’ll never get into the hands of your boss, coworkers, parents, and/or younger siblings. The site boasts 2000 members from 500 colleges already, so we’ll see what happens. Actually, we won’t see — that’s the whole point.

Playboy fights slump with Web site [Yahoo! News]

The recent launch of Silicon Valley funded adult/porn site Zivity raised a few eyebrows. Now one of the old sovereigns of sexy is getting into the game, too. CrunchGear reports that Playboy is launching their own sexy social networking site just for college students, Playboy U.

Playboy U requires all users to have a .edu email addresses, mimicking Facebook’s early policy of only allowing college students to join. They say, “Sorry, but high schoolers, old dudes and your Mom can’t join”. However, The site won’t be as lascivious as the periodical. In what may be a bummer for some, the site will be “an exclusive college-only non-nude social network”. Furthermore, it will be a place to “show your school pride, connect with other students and celebrate the social side of college”. But I’m sure they’re not going to police the whole network for porn.

Student profiles will consist of the usual social network features including, bios, photos, videos, Blogs, and Forums. Schools will have customized pages, parties and on-campus events, and a national radio show with student callers.

Other magazines have been trying to get with the times and fight floundering readership by launching their own social networks too. Rolling Stone recently announced plans for their own network as well. But Playboy may have some better luck with readership already skewing toward the college following.

Lots of college students lament the loss of their exclusive Facebook social network to the older crowd. They may be receptive to a newer, cooler alternative. Something tells me that Playboy may not be the brand to steal their hearts, though.

Playboy, always at the forefront of high technology and commerce, has created some special wallpapers for your iPhone. Not much skin in these — they want you to “buy” their “magazine” to see boobs — but it’s important that people understand that even in the dusty halls of Playboy, behind a vaseline-stained skrim and rolls of gauzy curtain material, there is a TV playing CNN non stop and someone — probably a jaded pornagrapher — is paying attention to what the kids are into today.

PR0N page via Machinist