Playboy to stop running pictures of completely naked women

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Playboy is about to find out how many people really do read it for the articles.

The magazine that helped usher in the sexual revolution in the 1950s and '60s by bringing nudity into America's living rooms — or at least its sock drawers — announced this week that it will no longer run photos of completely naked women.

Playboy has seen its circulation plunge in recent decades as it has fallen victim to some of the very forces it helped set in motion. First it had to deal with competition from more sexually explicit magazines like Penthouse and Hustler. Now the Internet is awash in high-definition porn.

Playboy has decided that the answer is less skin, not more.

"You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it's just passé at this juncture," Playboy Enterprises CEO Scott Flanders told The New York Times.

Starting in March, Playboy's print edition will still feature women in provocative poses, but they will no longer be fully nude. It will become more like Esquire and other magazines with PG-13-type pictures.

The Times said the magazine has not decided whether to continue having a centerfold.

Playboy became famous for publishing naked photos of some of the world's most famous women. Marilyn Monroe was its first centerfold, 62 years ago.