Lonely housewives and discriminating gay men will be sad to know that Playgirl magazine has decided to cease publishing in print. The glossy, soft-porn magazine will publish its last print issue in November before converting to an online-only format.

The revamped Playgirl.com website will feature more videos and pictorials and less editorial content, according to Nicole Caldwell, the magazine’s editor-in-chief.

Playgirl Magazine debuted as the women’s alternative to soft-porn men’s magazines in 1973. Although originally designed with the feminist in mind, the magazine quickly grew a gay male fan base as well.

Playgirl features pictorials of nude and seminude men in erotic poses, accompanied by articles on sex, lifestyle topics and celebrities. Although marketed to women, Playgirl estimated in 2003 that gay men made up to 50% of the magazine’s readership, according to a report by Multichannel News. The magazine has been published in numerous languages over the years, featuring international editions in Germany, France, Australia, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

I laughed when I read Michael Gove's comments, blaming lad mags for all society's ills. I've written for a few lad mags in the past – Zoo, Maxim, Arena, GQ (though I would call the last two style magazines). That doesn't mean I am now going to try and make a case for their moral fibre, because frankly they've got about as much moral fibre as asbestos. But that's precisely their point. So telling lad mags that they're doing something wrong actually means they are doing something right. The day the editor of a lad mag gets a letter of congratulation from a Conservative MP will be the same day he gets another letter. From his boss. With a P45 in it.

This rebuke from Gove will be worn as a badge of honour – the equivalent of the cool kid in class getting a ticking off from teacher. And the mags to which he has given free publicity will respond with a contemptuous snigger. You can bet those editors will today be standing behind their respective art directors' chairs, clapping with delight at the digital manipulation in Photoshop of Mr Gove's visage, which will doubtless appear as a vulgar retort in next week's issue. A joke which approximately 1% of the readership will get, because they've probably never even heard of this Gove bloke. But whatever, right, it's a picture, yeah, of a geezer with his head up his own arse, right, and that's like well funny, innit.

Gove is crediting these magazines with too much power and influence. Zoo and Nuts do not dictate culture; they reflect it. That's why they sell so well and that's why they exist. Blaming two magazines for everything from "teenage pregnancy" to "selfish irresponsibility" is exactly the kind of lazy generalisation I would expect from absolutely all soggy-biscuit-eating Tories. The same lazy generalisation they rouse from its slumber every time a kid stabs someone, having apparently learned precisely how to do it while playing Grand Theft Auto: Chav City or watching So You Think You Can Dance.

...Read full article

In a keynote speech Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, condemns the so-called "lads magazines" for encouraging men to view women as mere sex objects.

Our strategies for dealing with teenage pregnancy need to be focused more on young men and their responsibilities, he will say.

That's why I believe we need to ask tough questions about the instant-hit hedonism celebrated by the modern men's magazines targeted at younger males.

Titles such as Nuts and Zoo paint a picture of women as permanently, lasciviously, uncomplicatedly available.

We should ask those who make profits out of revelling in, or encouraging, selfish irresponsibility among young men what they think they're doing.

The relationship between these titles and their readers is a relationship in which the rest of us have an interest.

The images they use and project reinforce a very narrow conception of beauty and a shallow approach towards women. They celebrate thrill-seeking and instant gratification without ever allowing any thought of responsibility towards others, or commitment, to intrude.

The contrast with the work done by women's magazines, and their publishers, to address their readers in a mature and responsible fashion, is striking.

Comment from Dan

Yeah fatherlessness and relationship breakdown is caused by young men reading lads mags. What a brainwave!

Asda has come under fire from independent magazine publishers for proposed alterations to distribution arrangements that include the supermarket being given editorial space in the publications it stocks.

MediaGuardian.co.uk has seen an email memo from Asda's newspaper and magazines buyer sent to some magazine distribution companies that includes a series of demands for a new relationship with the supermarket giant.

Publishers supplying magazines to Asda branded the supermarket's demands "outrageous" and not "economically viable".

The proposals were due to be discussed at a meeting between representatives of Asda, magazine distributors and publishers. Asda's demands include a request for two pages of editorial or advertising space each month in titles of the company's choosing.

Another is that shop space given over to a distributor's titles will be subject to a "space contribution" of £10,000 paid to the supermarket. Asda is asking for a space contribution for each new Asda store opened of £2,500 per magazine title to be paid to the supermarket. The supermarket company is also demanding that any new title distributed in its stores will be subject to an "item set up" charge of £2,464.

According to the email memo, the supermarket is also requesting that a turnover bonus to the value of 2% of its magazine suppliers' total business with Asda be paid quarterly to the supermarket and backdated to January 1 2008. In addition to these charges Asda is also seeking a "hurdle rate" for new titles carried in stores, so if sales of the magazines are 20% less than forecast the supermarket will be compensated with the difference.

Asking for a contribution for each line [magazine title] in a new store is just not economically viable, a senior magazine publishing source told MediaGuardian.co.uk. The source added that it was "absurd" of Asda to expect editorial teams to give control away to the retailer.

The most annoying thing is asking for editorial space in magazines. The implications of that are huge because Tesco and Sainsbury would want it too and then all of a sudden magazines are full of advertorials, they said.

A group of pastors and preachers belonging to different churches in Manila have filed criminal complaints against editors and publishers of popular men's magazines and so-called smut tabloids before the Manila Prosecutor's Office.

The group was led by Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, a pastor of the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Church and anti-porn nutter.

Charged in the joint complaint affidavit were editors and publishers of Philippines Playboy magazine, FHM, Maxim, Playhouse, Sagad, Hataw and Toro.

The group accused the respondents of grave scandal and obscene publication. The respondents also cited violation of Ordinance No. 7780 of the City of Manila, which prohibits the printing publication, sale, distribution and exhibition of obscene and pornographic acts and materials.

The group said the magazines and tabloids violated anti-pornography laws for containing obscene, erotic, indecent, or lewd pictures/poses that show, depict, exhibit, or describe nude or semi nude bodies sexual acts, sexual intercourse, private parts of the human body of both male and female, with no educational, artistic, cultural or scientific value.

Abante said this will be the first time that a class suit will be filed against the said magazines and tabloids. Abante said he is hoping that there are still judges who have the moral conscience to look into their complaint.

Busty Beauties Issue 61 has the honour of being the first porn magazine to be banned in Australia in 2008.

Sex sells. The owners of the Daily Sport have discovered to their horror that the old adage holds true.

An attempt to clean up Britain's most salacious tabloid has resulted in a circulation plunge deeper than Katie Price's neckline, a profits warning from its publisher, the resignation of its chairman and a strategic review that could result in a sale of all or part of the company.

Sport Media Group, which publishes the Daily and Sunday Sport but earns the majority of its profits from internet and mobile phone pornography, pin ups and chatlines, said yesterday that its move upmarket had failed to stimulate readers.

The lack of phwoar factor following an April relaunch masterminded by the creators of men's magazines Loaded and Zoo, which banished the sleazier ads to the back pages, accelerated circulation decline from 3% a month to 11% in May. Sales are now averaging 85,000 a day.

On 25 April a Brussels court sentenced the “anti-globalist”  monthly magazine MO to a payment of 1 euro in moral damages to the businessman George Forrest because the magazine had printed a cartoon on its front page depicting Mr. Forrest, who owns a copper empire in Congo, in the traditional costume of Congo’s former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

The court ruled that freedom of the press, as protected by article 25 of the Belgian Constitution, does not apply to cartoons because article 25, which dates from 1831, applies to “writers” but not to illustrators.

Article 25 of the Belgian Constitution states: The printing press is free; censorship can never be introduced; no deposits can be demanded from the writers, publishers and printers. If the writer is known and has his domicile in Belgium the publisher, printer or distributor cannot be prosecuted.”

Judges Valvekens, De Ridder and Morel of the 20th Chamber of the Court of First Instance in Brussels ruled that The cover illustration cannot be considered to be a direct expression of a thought or opinion protected by the freedom of the press because

Article 25 explicitly refers to ‘the writer.’ The illustration used on the cover is merely a depiction of a person, and not a writing, to which the exceptional status that applies to offences relating to the printing press has no effect.

The Daily Sport, which claims to be the UK’s only daily paper for men, has been given a new look as it re-launches its mix of daily news, sport, humour, glamour and sex.

Adult advertising and editorial now appears in a 24-page insert, X-tra!.

Whilst the re-launch is not intended to alienate the ‘everyday man’ who is interested in sex, sport, women and having a laugh, it is intended to make the title more appealing to new readers and mainstream advertisers looking to reach this core audience.

Sport Newspapers Editor-in-Chief, Barry McIlheney commented: With the current trend towards celebrity obsessed, female biased editorial, we want to provide a modern daily newspaper for the great modern British bloke. An important audience which is often underestimated or forgotten and currently isn’t being catered for elsewhere in the market

Two lawmakers yesterday bonded with two bishops to criticize Playboy Philippines magazine, saying it will erode cultural and religious ideals.

Joel Villanueva and Marcelino Teodoro said the publication would compound the problem of pornography, long blamed for the rise of sex-related violence such as rape.

Villanueva said: We should all be vigilant and fight the evils of pornography. Sad to say, we cannot expect this administration to promote righteousness and moral values.

Teodoro said Playboy Philippines should seriously consider the sensitivities of the populace before coming out with their photos, news and feature articles: Filipinos are predominantly conservative and the magazine will degenerate cultural and religious ideals.

The lawmakers echoed the sentiments of Monsignor Pedro Quitorio, media director of Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, and Palawan Bishop Pedro Arigo.

Publisher Beting Dolor reassured critics that the local approach would be “conservative” and will avoid frontal nudity. He describes the magazine as a venue for mature literature and intelligent discussion of issues.

Quitorio is unimpressed: We have more than enough problems now to take care of and now we have to deal with another moral problem?

Update: Go Go Gonzales

15th April

Citizens Battle Against Corruption Representative Cinchona Cruz-Gonzales said the launching of Playboy magazine would “contribute to the increasing medium of promoting pornography and women exploitation in the Philippines.”

Heeding the call of nutter groups against the launch of the Philippine version of the world famous magazine, Gonzales sought to push the enactment of House Bill No. 998 or the IPOD (Immorality, Pornography and Obscenity) Act of 2007.

South Carolina State Senator Mike Fair wants to add a 20% surcharge on magazines like Playboy and Hustler that show frontal nudity. He says the tax hike would raise $385,000 dollars for the state to pay for tracking devices for sex offenders.

Just as we're trying to do with cigarettes, we have tried to do and continue to try to do with alcohol, is lets the users of those products pay for some of the consequences that come from that, Fair explained.

Senator Fair introduced the proposal at a senate finance committee. Right now the group is working on the sate's seven million dollar budget. Senators did not vote on the idea yet, but he hopes they discuss it more when they meet again soon.

A Philippines edition of Playboy men's magazine will hit the newsstands next month, but without the nude women that graced the pages of its Western counterparts.

Veteran journalist Beting Laygo Dolor, the editor-in-chief of the Playboy Philippine edition, said the launch of the magazine will be on April 2.

Dolor said the Playboy Philippine edition is a lifestyle magazine for successful men and women: It will be tamer than the US edition but not as tame as the Indonesian edition. It is a mature lifestyle magazine.

Dolor said the local edition will contain serious articles to be contributed by awarded Filipino writers.

After four years of processing subscription payments for Going Natural magazine, PayPal has abruptly cancelled service to its publisher, the Federation of Canadian Naturists (FCN).

Attempts to get an explanation as to how the magazine violates PayPal's "acceptable use" policy have been met with generic e-mails from faceless and implacable customer-service personnel. Those e-mails falsely claim the magazine is pornographic, and sells sexually oriented goods or services involving minors or services for which the purpose is to facilitate meetings for sexually oriented activities.

Going Natural magazine is devoted to naturism (or nudism), a social movement over a hundred years old and unrelated to sexual activity.

The FCN is not the first naturist organization to be rejected by PayPal, which arbitrarily denies service to persons or organizations it alone deems socially unacceptable.

PayPal's decision about Going Natural and its claims about the FCN are unfounded embellishments born of ignorance, notes Judy Williams, Government Affairs Director for the FCN.

Demand for an Afrikaans sex magazine that targets married, Christian women has increased so much that an English version will hit the shelves next month.

The launch edition of Intimacy follows a 300 percent growth in demand for Intiem magazine, which was launched in 2006.

We strive to empower Christian women not to feel guilty for enjoying this God-given pleasure which is sex, but rather to embrace it, said managing editor Liezel van der Merwe.

Writing on sex from a Christian perspective had been a difficult challenge, with sex and religion both highly sensitive topics and few guidelines in the Bible, said Van der Merwe.

You won't find any information on, say, masturbation, oral sex or how to spice up your sex life in the Bible. So the only thing one can do is to take the general guidelines that were given to us and apply it to the best of our knowledge and with guidance from the Holy Spirit.

The quarterly Afrikaans version, which has a 30 000 distribution run, will be translated and adapted for English-speakers to appeal to a multicultural audience.

While we believed that it was only Afrikaans women from a Calvinistic upbringing who had a need for a magazine which speaks openly and freely about sex, we soon came to realise that this was not the case. This was the obvious next step. The magazines were not Christian publications, but written from a Christian perspective, she clarified.

This meant monogamy was endorsed and marital affairs condemned. And while experiments with oral sex might be encouraged, no articles written for gay couples would ever be found.

Iran has banned nine lifestyle and cinema magazines for publishing pictures of "corrupt" foreign film stars and details about their "decadent" private lives, the student ISNA news agency said.

The publications were banned by the press commission watchdog for publishing photographs of corrupt foreign artists and details about their decadent lives.

The most significant magazines banned are Donya-ye Tasvir (World of the Image), Sobh-e Zendegi (Morning of Life), Talash (Effort) and Haft (Seven). The commission also gave warnings to 13 other publications.

Such magazines regularly print articles and pictures of foreign film stars, as well as of Iranian actresses in the kinds of loose headscarves and tight-fitting clothes that are frowned upon by the Islamic authorities.

The latest issue of Donya-ye Tasvir carried articles about several Hollywood female stars including Naomi Watts, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, all accompanied by pictures.

In Tehran there are only a handful of cinemas which offer a selective screening of foreign movies, which are subject to heavy censorship of any scenes where actresses are scantly dressed.

The Polish book retailer Empik has begun to limit pornographic magazines in its stores supposedly due to poor sales.

Beginning this month, new stores will no longer carry many pornographic publications and over the next few weeks, more than 90 erotic magazines will disappear from existing Empik locations. Also, Empik has withdrawn an order to some retailers of erotic periodicals.

According to Empik, its clientele buys predominantly health-and-fitness or women's periodicals. The Polish book retailer has said that Playboy magazine will still be sold in its stores. 

Porn king and property magnate Paul Raymond has died aged 82.

Raymond was credited with staging the first live striptease show in London and amassed an estimated fortune of £650million.

As he built his empire, he was dubbed the King of Soho and his stable of porn magazines included Razzle, Mayfair and Men Only.

He started in the business as a producer, touring a variety programme, the Vaudeville Express, around the country. Raymond got round a ruling by the Lord Chamberlain which banned movement by nudes on stage by getting the topless women not to move.

Exploiting a loophole which made private clubs exempt from official censorship, he opened the Raymond Revuebar strip club in Soho in 1958.

After an earlier failure, Raymond returned to porn publishing with Men Only in 1971 and his magazines became the first top-shelf glossies.

DIVA, Europe’s leading lesbian glossy monthly, has immortalised the legendary cover of Rolling Stone Magazine featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but using two women.

Celebrating the sensuality of sex, DIVA reworked the image to include two ladies, not only to reflect the sexuality of the magazine, but also to reflect Leibovitz’s significant contribution to magazine culture.

Just as the presses were about to roll, the publishers were told by the retailer that the magazine couldn’t run with the iconic cover.

Unfortunately, we were forced to censor the cover because one major retailer objected to it. They didn’t explain why, editor Jane Czyzselska said.

Which retailer is it that took on the role of “censor”. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to come up with the name WH Smith.

DIVA’s art department quickly moved the wording “The Super Sexy Issue” to cover the offending breast – and the magazine can now be sold in the 543 high street stores and 259 outlets at airports, train stations and motorway service stations operated by WH Smith.

A spokesperson for WH Smith said that the projected cover was a step away from the magazine’s usual covers. She went on to say that the company told the publisher that it could be sold with the proposed cover if every copy was “bagged”.

The April edition of DIVA goes on sale in the UK on March 6.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.

A nutter's campaign against lads mags has won the support of an influential group of MSPs.

MSP Gil Paterson this week lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament congratulating the efforts of Margaret Forbes who launched a one-woman campaign demanding men’s mags such as Loaded and Nuts be tucked away on top shelves.

She argues the magazines’ front covers are in the same league as soft porn, and objects to them being displayed in lower shelves alongside more family-friendly lifestyle magazines in sight of children.

Now she has won support from politicians from the three main parties in the Scottish Parliament after they heard supermarket chain Morrison’s has chosen to stock the magazines more discreetly.

Paterson, vice convener of a parliamentary group on violence against women and children, has also written to justice secretary Kenny McAskill over the issue.

The motion has been backed by 16 MSPs. As well as congratulating Margaret, it argued that Parliament should support her campaign to encourage other supermarket chains and vendors to follow the example set by Morrisons.

Paterson said: It’s the general attitude towards porn, and the fact children are exposed to it and the normalisation of it that I’m concerned about.

Ms Forbes said: I’m very much encouraged because I feel like I’ve been doing it on my own. I’ve been feeling very isolated and a lot of times I get doors slammed in my face when I go round with my petition. But there is still more to go, because we need to get other supermarkets to do the same.

The stock market is to provide its first listing for a pornography publishing group as the adult magazines empire founded by Express owner Richard Desmond next week seeks a listing on the junior Plus Market.

Interactive Publishing, a shell group, is floating at the same time as agreeing a reverse takeover deal with Trojan Publishing, a private business that has built up a large portfolio of top-shelf titles such as Asian Babes, Forty Plus and New Talent.

Before buying rights to about 30 former Desmond titles last year, Trojan acquired about a dozen mostly adult magazines from British Virgin Islands-registered AML Publishing Trust in June 2006. A month later it signed a deal with Penthouse, licensing rights to Forum.

A stock market listing for Desmond's onetime porn titles comes two months after a bankruptcy order was made against entrepreneur Simon Robinson. Robinson, a former Express journalist, had acquired the titles, trading as Remnant Media, from Desmond in 2004 for £10.8m. Remnant slipped into administration last year only to be snapped up by Trojan, a business at which Robinson had been a director until January 2007.

North Carolina judge, Kevin Eddinger, held lawyer Todd Paris in contempt after he saw him reading Maxim magazine with “a female topless model” on the cover, according to the court order.

When Eddinger gave Paris a chance to respond he apologized and stated in his view the magazine was not pornography, was available at local stores and that he did not intend contempt, the order said. Eddinger fined Paris $300, gave him a 15 day suspended jail sentence that remains in effect for a year and placed him on unsupervised probation, according to the order.

Eddinger wrote in the order that The contemnor’s (Paris) conduct interrupted the proceedings of the court and impaired the respect due its authority. In addition, the contemnor’s actions were grossly inappropriate, patently offensive, and violative of Rule 12 of the General Rules of Practice. Courtroom staff, law enforcement, members of the Bar and the general public shall be able to conduct courtroom business in an atmosphere free of the display of offensive material as demonstrated by the contemnor, thus necessitating this action.