Considering the world-wide brand recognition, celebrity history and over five decades of sexual liberation, why isn’t Playboy on top of the world? I regularly find reports, articles, and news stories that speak to low quarterly earnings and more “challenges” ahead. Recently I read that Hugh himself is done throwing parties at the mansion due, in part, to the troubled economic situation in Chicago. Of course having been an employee of Playboy Entertainment Inc. I have an idea. It was my experience early on that Playboy had grown so large, compartmentalized and departmentally territorial that it was in fact killing itself from the inside.

Several years ago Playboy began acquiring successful internet-based adult companies such as Jenna Jameson’s ClubJenna and the prolific Adult.com in the hopes that they could somehow contribute to the expansion of their Internet division bottom-line. Those two companies (among others) were singled out because of their perceived success in the industry and Chicago very much wanted to learn their Internet secrets to making millions. Slowly Playboy’s internal red tape began creeping it’s way into these smaller companies infrastructures impeding critical processes like market adaptability and product production.

Maybe it’s because of the falling subscription numbers, the increasing cost of print, the global economy itself or all of the above, the internal divisions were not friends. There’s almost no voluntary sharing of proprietary resources, rampant finger-pointing and communication amounted to endless meetings about meetings. There’s so much raw talent there that it’s inexcusable Playboy isn’t raining money down on shareholders and that’s the real tragedy of it all, if only…

There’s only a handful of brands in the world as universally recognizable as Playboy. Having said that we were confounded at how apprehensive the company was to leverage their brand strength in the marketplace. The impression I actually got was that for some mysterious reason Playboy was afraid to leverage the bunny to get things done. Any other company would be lucky to have the kind of leveraging potential that Playboy has and would no doubt find the fear to use it unbelievable.

To be certain I will always have priceless memories of the Playboy Mansion parties, on-location photo shoots all over the country and numerous Casting Calls. I can appreciate the fact that those were experiences most people will never have the opportunity to enjoy. That is precisely why, as a childhood fan of the Playboy empire who as an adult found myself within the company, I was both shocked and disappointed. I suppose we were all hoping to find a perfect utopia behind the shiny gates but the reality stood in stark contrast.

Two things stand out in my mind as the biggest obstacles standing in the way of Playboy’s once and possible future success. The first dilemma is Playboy magazine. Unfortunately this is ultimately a doomed venture which becomes painfully more apparent with each passing year. The fact that it’s the flagship of the organization doesn’t make it any easier to stomach. I just don’t see how it’s existence can be justified at the cost of the rest of the company. The second problem relates to their Internet business model which amounted to the application of an outdated print-business model to the Internet. It goes without saying that print and the Internet are apples and oranges. In other words what worked in print may not work the web. Until the “old ways” are abandoned and the “new ways” adopted their earnings will continue to slide.

Enjoy! - S P A N N O W