AceShowbiz -

Playboy will no longer feature nude photos in its publication. According to The New York Times, the founder of the magazine, Hugh Hefner, recently agreed with a radical suggestion presented by Cory Jones, a top editor of the magazine, to remove images of naked women from its future publications.

A redesign is reportedly to be unveiled next March. The print edition of the magazine will still display women in provocative poses. However, they will no longer be fully nude. According to Jones, the magazine will adopt a cleaner and more modern style. The website will also adopt similar style.

There will also be a change on its sex columnist. Jones said that the columnist would be a "sex-positive female" who has passion for writing about sex. Despite some changes, the magazine will continue its tradition of investigative journalism, in-depth interviews and fiction. The company's chief executive, Scott Flanders, said that the target audience of the magazine after redesign would be young men who live in cities.

The redesign may disappoint some loyal readers of the magazine. However, Jones explained that it's a good step. "Don't get me wrong. 12-year-old me is very disappointed in current me. But it's the right thing to do," he said of the radical change the magazine will face.

According to the Alliance for Audited Media, Playboy's circulation has fallen from 5.6 million in 1975 to about 800,000 now. Many of its competitors even disappeared from the market. Flanders explained that pornography nowadays is accessible via internet so that the printed magazine would be abandoned. "You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it's just passe at this juncture," he said.