Penthouse Slipping Into Something More Comfortable, Going Online-Only

Screen Shot 2016-01-15 at 5.30.08 PMMonths after Playboy made the decision to try to stay in print by ditching the bared flesh that made it famous, its raunchier longtime competitor Penthouse has decided to give up on print and focus on being an online-only publication.

CNBC reports that Penthouse’s parent company announced today that the magazine will soon cease to exist in print and that readers with existing print subscriptions will be transitioned to an online version of the magazine going forward.

“Penthouse Magazine will continue to be published in print during the transition to digital. No specific date to stop print publication of our flagship magazine has been set,” reads a statement from Ezra Shashoua, CFO of FriendFinder Networks, the parent company behind the magazine founded in the 1960s by icon of excess Bob Guccione.

The slick-voiced, and frequently unbuttoned Guccione left the publication in 2003 after the business entered bankruptcy. FriendFinder then purchased Penthouse in 2004. It too, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2013, noting that the magazine hadn’t turned a profit in years.

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