Playboy's celebrity-driven relaunch faces credibility test in OnlyFans era, expert says
Playboy is back on the rack, now with a focus on "prestige" and storytelling alongside the nude images synonymous with the magazine.
More than 70 years after Hugh Hefner founded the men's magazine brand, newly-appointed editor-in-chief Philip Picardi and David Miller, Playboy’s president of media and brand, were tasked with reviving the publication for an ever-changing audience.
A celebrity-focused relaunch to promote the iconic Playboy Playmates and Bunnies began in April with Colombian pop star Karol G on the cover. The sold-out print run lead efforts for a larger print run of its latest issue featuring supermodel Cara Delevingne in only a latex corset.
Adrienne Uthe, founder of Kronus Communications, exclusively told Fox News Digital that it's essential for Playboy to evolve if they want to survive a reinvention.
"It's not about erasing who you were — it's about carrying the core of what made you iconic into a context that makes sense today," Uthe said. "Playboy knows what it is. The question is whether it can translate that into something the market is ready to receive."
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Picardi recently told the Press Gazette that focusing on what "initially drove its prestige and its buzz and its interest and its loyalty, which was of course its storytelling" was paramount for Playboy's revival.
"There’s always been a difference between Playboy and porn, especially the kinds of porn that are really prevalent today and that people have access to just by having a Twitter account or a Reddit account," Picardi told the outlet. "And so I actually found the challenge of bringing back an artfulness and a thoughtfulness to nudity to be super exciting as a creative."
In addition to featuring Playmates of the month, photoshoots are featured online and across social media platforms. Picardi also admitted that cover stars are "fully involved" in the creative process, including approval over photographers and stylists.
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"I stop short of calling what we do at Playboy feminist, because I think that’s a loaded term, and I’m sure many people would disagree with that qualification," Picardi said.
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"But what I will say is what our approach with nudity has always been: that it is up to a woman how much she has to show on set … when we make sure that the permission lies with the woman herself, we’re always surprised that she feels very liberated to make the calls and do what she wants to do, which is often showing more than we expected or thought of."
Uthe agreed that power dynamics were still very much in play, albeit with unbalanced scales.
"The cultural headwinds are real — but they're not as uniformly strong as people assume," Uthe said. "Yes, #MeToo shifted the conversation around how women are viewed. But look at OnlyFans: over 300 million registered users, creators earning billions annually.
"The appetite for adult content and sexual expression didn't disappear — it just moved, and in many cases toward platforms where women hold the power."
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She added, "That's actually Playboy's opening if they're smart enough to take it. The challenge isn't the market. The challenge is credibility. Can Playboy convince a generation that grew up with creator-controlled content that a legacy brand can authentically stand for the same thing?"
Celebrity partnerships may be "critical" at this stage in the game, but Uthe warned it only works if "the alignment is real."
"Karol G and Cara Delevingne aren't random choices, and that's the point," she said. "Every partnership is a positioning signal right now. The danger is chasing names instead of synonymy.
"The partners need to embody what Playboy is becoming, not just lend their audience to it. Done right, this accelerates everything. Done wrong, it reads as desperate."
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Despite heightened interest in publishing a new version of past pleasures, the brand still has an uphill battle.
"Playboy should show, not tell," Uthe said. "There's something worth saving — the cultural footprint, the iconography, the permission to talk about sexuality openly and unapologetically. But hope isn't a strategy."
"The brands that make it back are the ones that stop defending their legacy and start building the next chapter. Playboy has the name. The question is whether they have the discipline to survive."
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The once-monthly print magazine went quarterly in 2019 and then shuttered in March 2020 during the pandemic. Special print issues were released before CEO Ben Kohn brought in a new team.
In 2025, the company made $120.9 million, with a net loss of $12.7 million, compared to $79.4 million in 2024, according to an earnings release.
Miller said there's interest in reviving Playboy-style parties, sporting events and research, but that they still want to make the brand "respectful, and we want to make it modern, and feel like it’s inviting and inclusive for all individuals."
Media executive Derek Reisfield, who previously served as CBS's vice president of business development, noted that Hefner was "very creative" about his brand growth and distribution.
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"He had the Playboy clubs ... It was a lifestyle thing," Reisfeld told Fox News Digital. "They had licensing, which is almost pure profit. The magazine was this great engine that then also enabled them to get into filmed entertainment with the Playboy Channel."
He added, "But the Internet came along and basically blew all these guys out of the water because there was a proliferation of pornography and semi-pornography, and it was all accessible. It was pretty cheap and and so that sort of killed it.
"They're trying to figure out how do I thread the needle in this new world where all this stuff is available to people and a lot of it's not really differentiated."
Celebrities and earned media appear to be the driving force for the business, which Reisfield admitted was "difficult positioning" for the publication.
"You have to get it just right, and I don't know if they have," he said. "I would want to do very extensive research about who the customer is, what trade-offs they're making, what their current media habits are, where there's an opening and where the heritage of Playboy can be deployed.
He added, "It's got to be true to the brand or what people believe the brand is."