Don’t Worry, Your Printed Penthouse Magazine Is Not Going Anywhere

Penthouse Magazine Goes Digital – But Print Isn't Dead Yet

There's no escaping the "once-it-gets-posted-it-must-be-true" world we live in. We saw this axiom writ large when it was recently announced that Penthouse Magazine was going digital. The blogosphere instantly declared that the famous men's magazine was stopping its print run. But Penthouse clarified their announcement: Yes, it will be launching an expansive digital archive in 2026, but will still publish the usual print issues of the magazine.

Why All the Confusion?

The Penthouse press release about their digital archive launch came a little too close for comfort to news that the company was laying off 20 employees from their New York offices. Headlined "Penthouse Magazine Goes Digital," the PR had doomsayers quickly yet erroneously connecting dots: employee layoffs plus announcement of a digital archive must indicate the stark truth so many magazines have faced in recent years—Penthouse must be stopping its print run.

Competing with online porn and the access we have to nude photos on our phones pretty much whenever we want, it's no surprise that there's been a paradigm shift in how the "nudie mag"—and lots of magazines, in fact—are currently being published. Last year, Playboy Magazine, Penthouse's biggest competitor, announced it would halt the publication of nude layouts. The infamous Playboy enterprise has undergone significant restructuring, closings, buyouts, and changes, even before the death of its founder, Hugh Hefner.

A Sign of the Times?

As Andy Markenson, Editor of Kink Queens Magazine, an adult publication geared toward hetero men with specific interests, says: "Printed magazine sales are significantly lower than online digital magazine sales, mostly because our business model targets a digital audience with less than 10 percent of sales being printed magazines. The majority of our audience is online through social media. It's way easier for that audience to access editions through cell phones, laptops, computers, or tablets."

Still, Kink Queens, as well as plenty of others, is released in digital format as well as print-on-demand, and Penthouse president Kelly Holland herself clarified that her magazine will continue its usual print run.

The Penthouse Magazine Digital Archive

Launching next year, the Penthouse Digital Archive (found at PenthouseMagazine.com) will give fans and collectors unprecedented access to every issue of the magazine for the first time. Those issues stretch back to the magazine's inaugural issue released in 1965, when Bob Guccione began publishing the magazine that would make him famous and a multimillionaire in Britain. In 1969, he launched Penthouse Magazine in the U.S., all but chasing and sometimes surpassing his obvious rabbit-eared competition by offering more explicit content.

Penthouse publisher General Media Inc. (85 percent owned by Guccione) filed for bankruptcy in 2003, leading to GMI being acquired by FriendFinder Networks. Besides publishing Penthouse, FriendFinder Networks operates a number of adult-oriented social networking sites, including AdultFriendFinder.com, Amigos.com, and SeniorFriendFinder.com.

The End of Print?

Which magazine will suddenly be gone from your local Barnes & Noble shelf, or have its digital issues overtake its print-on-demand, is surely one of the main questions publishers, distributors, and readers consider these days. Still, as Andy Markenson reminds us about print versions of magazines, especially those that feature pictures (NSFW or otherwise) of beautiful women: "There will always be some people who prefer a glossy print image over a digital one. The women stand out differently, and the colors just pop more. Plus, there are those who don't have access to the internet or can't use digital devices at their discretion. So for some, print is like a backup that's always there, easy to access, and you have full control over."

And for the time being, at least, it seems Penthouse will keep popping.