Playboy magazine, the once-leading publication that chronicled the sexual revolution through a combination of high-gloss nude pictures and top-notch fiction and journalism, will cease publication in the United States after almost seven decades on newsstands, according to Playboy Enterprises Inc.

Ben Kohn, the CEO, stated in an open post on Medium that the decision to discontinue producing the magazine – which has been a quarterly since 2019 – had been considered internally for some time but was accelerated by the coronavirus outbreak.

Ben wrote. “As the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic to content production and the supply chain became clearer and clearer, we were forced to accelerate a conversation we’ve been having internally: the question of how to transform our US print product to better suit what consumers want today … [and] engage in a cultural conversation each and every day, rather than just every three months.”

Playboy will “move to a digital-first publishing schedule” for all of its material, including interviews and pictorials, according to Mr. Kohn.

“We will move to a digital-first publishing schedule for all of our content including the Playboy Interview, 20Q, the Playboy Advisor and of course our Playmate pictorials,” he said.

Since the 2008 recession, print magazines have been struggling, and Playboy has not been immune to those shifts in audience engagement as many subscribers have moved to digital platforms. However, Kohn claims that the current coronavirus pandemic has accelerated Playboy’s plans to halt publication of the print product, which he claims has only been able to reach a small subset of their audience.

“It’s no surprise that media consumption habits have been changing for some time — and while the stories we produce and the artwork we showcase is enjoyed by millions of people on digital platforms, our content in its printed form reaches the hands of only a fraction of our fans,” he writes. “Last week, as the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic to content production and the supply chain became clearer and clearer, we were forced to accelerate a conversation we’ve been having internally: the question of how to transform our U.S. print product to better suit what consumers want today, and how to utilize our industry-leading content production capabilities to engage in a cultural conversation each and every day, rather than just every three months.”

According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 14,000 coronavirus infections have been documented in the United States, and 10,000 people have died around the world as a result of the virus.

The Playboy magazine debuted in 1953 and quickly gained fame for publishing semi-naked and naked photographs of female models.

Hugh Hefner founded the American men’s leisure and entertainment magazine, which has now grown into a global brand.  “Our content, products, partners and experiences are how we drive important conversations, shine a light on inequality, censorship and prejudice, and break down the barriers to pleasure and sexual freedom that so many still face,” Kohn said.

In 2016, the magazine chose not to print full-frontal nude photographs of women since online pornography had made them “passe,” and a PG-13 magazine would be easier to sell to advertisers and display on newsstands. Playboy, however, reversed the decision by February 2017. Hugh Hefner passed away in September of the same year.

Kohn has also overseen the brand’s development into physical venues and licensing agreements throughout the world. Despite the decline in print, he claims that Playboy Enterprises still generates a sizable profit each year. “Our audience is massive,” he writes. “We drive over $3 billion in annual consumer spend worldwide. We reach hundreds of millions of eyeballs every year, across all genders. This past year, our focus has been on meeting audiences where they are. We gained over 4 million new Instagram followers and saw over 50 percent growth in engagement on our social channels in the past 6 months, grew our digital video subscriptions by almost 30 percent year-over-year and acquired a direct-to-consumer commerce operation that serves almost one million active customers every month.”

“Playboy is many things to many people. A magazine to many, a lifestyle to many more … according to some, ‘a corruptor of our youth’,” Kohn wrote.

“One thing has remained constant: our commitment to free expression and breaking taboos, leaning into discomfort … We will never stop seeking to help our audience understand their own sexuality and that of others,” his statement said.

This month, Playboy magazine issued its Spring 2020 “Speech Issue,” which “boasts a remarkable collection of essential voices.”