Can Boca Firm Save Playboy Magazine?

In what may be a sign that men are no longer curious about the nude female form -- or that the internet exists -- Playboy magazine is struggling to stay afloat financially. Now a Boca Raton company, American Media Inc., has the job of trying to save it.The Wall Street...

By Thomas Francis

November 25, 2009

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In what may be a sign that men are no longer curious about the nude female form -- or that the internet exists -- Playboy magazine is struggling to stay afloat financially. Now a Boca Raton company, American Media Inc., has the job of trying to save it.

The Wall Street Journal reports that AMI is going to handle all the magazine's business operations, except the fun part: editorial. You'll have to pry that department from Hugh Hefner's cold dead hand.

AMI's task is get the magazine back in the black by 2011. Playboy lost $13 million in 2008 and is on track to lose another $9 million this year.

In truth, the magazine's been hurt not just by the internet but by the lad magazines -- Maxim and its ilk -- as well as the growth of other men's magazines, like GQ, Esquire, and Details.

The company is headquartered in West Boca, just south of Yamato Road, near Everglades University.

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