LOS ANGELES — PLBY Group CEO Ben Kohn revealed Thursday that the ongoing relaunch of the Playboy brand will include reviving its iconic magazine in early 2025.
Revamped flagship website Playboy.com — themed as a digital version of the Playboy Club — debuted earlier this week as part of the relaunch.
Kohn made the announcement through a statement disclosing PLBY Group’s financial and operational results for the second quarter of 2024, which ended June 30.
“We have taken significant steps to position Playboy for future success, aimed at strengthening our balance sheet and enhancing our operations,” Kohn’s statement read. “Our senior lenders have agreed to give us an exclusive period of time to repay all of the debt at a significant discount, which would meaningfully reduce total company leverage. To accomplish this, we have engaged a leading investment bank to help secure new financing.”
In recent months, Kohn added, PLBY has made “substantial progress” toward bringing the Playboy brand into the digital age.
“Playboy is the quintessential lifestyle brand, with a rich heritage, reaching not only across generations, but across content categories as well,” he explained. “We are confident that by rebuilding key content verticals such as men’s lifestyle, automotive, sports and travel, we can vastly expand the ways in which consumers interact with our brand — through social media, events and experiences, and content on a newly redesigned Playboy.com, which debuted earlier this week.
“The power of the creator economy is the key to building a successful and relevant content business in today’s rapidly changing media ecosystem, and we plan to partner with creators of all types to produce dynamic, fresh content across all of our distribution channels,” the statement continued. “We are creating exciting opportunities for advertising and sponsorship partners to reach new consumers by reestablishing Playboy as the premier aspirational lifestyle brand.
“This new strategy is already delivering results, including a multi-million dollar pipeline of sponsorship deals,” Kohn added. “A key part of this strategy was revamping our social media accounts, driving nearly 30 million Instagram video views in the past three months alone.”
Kohn then announced that Playboy magazine is scheduled to return to print in early 2025, serving as “a powerful promotional tool” for the relaunch.
The magazine will include classic features such as Playmate and celebrity collaborations, the Playboy Interview, 20 Questions and the Playboy Advisor.
Kohn also announced a global search for the magazine’s newest Playmate, kicking off with an eight-city casting tour starting next month in New York City and culminating in the reveal of the 2024 Playmate of the Year in the new magazine.
Kohn also heralded the rebuilding of PLBY’s lucrative licensing business.
“In the past few months, we’ve signed multiple new deals, including with a new apparel and accessories licensing partner in China, a global condoms and gel lubricants partner, a new e-commerce shop partner, and multiple other deals, amounting to a total of over $45 million in minimum guarantees over the coming years,” he revealed. “Our pipeline continues to grow and we are optimistic about what lies ahead for our licensing business.”
For the complete statement in PLBY Group’s second-quarter report, click here.
