It would seem that the US recession is “far reaching”. Even Playboy headquarters in New York is said to be closing office to move back to Chicago. The office closing will coincide with the probability of laying off the New York staff. This move is seen as part of the company’s restructuring strategy. Mostly because New York real estate is just too much to bear, I guess.
It’s not closing down (!), let me be clear about that, it’s just closing a branch to expand another. But speculations do abound that the magazine is losing its strong foothold to competition.
The company opened its New York City offices on Fifth Avenue in the early 1990s and didn’t move editorial functions there until 2002. It will be an icon company loss for the Big Apple. And Chicago has been known as the second city anyway!
While Playboy is still the best-selling men’s magazine (circulation of 2.6 million), its market share has been eaten away by lad mags like FHM and Maxim. Will we see Playboy going down the drain soon? I’m not too sure about that!