The owner of Penthouse Magazine, the more graphic alternative to Playboy, has filed for bankruptcy protection — a consequence of how print porn became impotent and screwed by the advent of the far more accessible (and free) Internet:
THE “pets” of Penthouse are in the doghouse after the owner of the adult magazine filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday.
FriendFinder Networks, which also owns websites such as adultfriendfinder.com, had assets of less than $US10 million but liabilities of $500 million to $1 billion, according to the Chapter 11 filing. It had struggled to make loan payments and is seeking to cut debt.
The magazine was set up by Bob Guccione in London in 1965 as a raunchier rival to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy, featuring full-frontal nudity and explicit poses. Publication of an American version began in 1969 and by 1978 it was selling more copies than Playboy, making at least $7 million a year. It regularly sold three million copies a month at the height of its success, and an issue in 1984 that featured Vanessa Williams, the first black Miss America, shifted five million copies.
By the early 1980s, Mr Guccione was worth $400 million. However, the advent of online pornography began to erode sales and several bad business deals put General Media in financial trouble. In 2003 the company declared itself bankrupt after defaulting on loans. It emerged from protection the following year and was renamed Penthouse Media Group. Mr Guccione left soon afterwards. He died of cancer in 2010, aged 79.
And it was of a different age, indeed: the age of the “Rat Pack,” the age depicted on “Mad Men,” when a magazine that wasn’t quite super XXX hardcore porn but was far raunchier than “Playboy” could thrive among adult men, and be the secret possession hidden in teenage boy’s rooms. Newer generations, the advent of the sexual revolution and the Internet made it as up to date as pay phone telephone booths. The New York Post:
As the reorganized FriendFinder scrambles for profits with a portfolio of social-networking sites, it’s doubtful whether creditors who are taking control of the company are committed to keeping the iconic porn publication alive, insiders said.
“Like all magazines, it’s struggling,” said one source briefed on the situation.But the glossy girlie mag founded by Bob Guccione, whose monthly circulation has sagged to less than 200,000 from 5 million at its peak, is being circled by New Jersey-born entrepreneur Jeremy Frommer, according to insiders.
Last year, Frommer acquired a trove of memorabilia owned by the late Guccione that included nude photos of Madonna and a picture of former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger engaged in a sex act.
Reached Tuesday, Frommer declined to comment. A spokesman for FriendFinder also declined to comment.
Sources said Frommer, a former Wall Street trader whose investments include New York night clubs and film projects, “doesn’t want to see them close the magazine,” said a source close to the situation.
That’s despite the fact that Penthouse has been losing money for years as its male readers have been lured away in droves by free Internet porn sites.
GO HERE for a Mad Magazine satire on Penthouse’s letter to creditors.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.