Channel hoppers
BACK IN 2010, when Playboy editorin- chief Hugh Hefner was questioned about the impact of the internet on print, he didn’t show too much concern and instead shared a belief that magazines would stand strong because they were the most personal form of journalism – or as he called them “old friends”.
Hefner probably should have been slightly more concerned about the rise of the internet because in late 2015, as a result of all the freely available ‘entertainment’ online, it decided to remove the famous centrefolds from its pages and reinvented itself as a premium mainstream men’s title (now people could legitimately say they only read it for the articles). While it might seem like a strange example to use given what many would call its objectionable editorial focus and its recent cashflow problems, it is a media brand that has harnessed its influence and expanded into new areas, to the point where, in 2010, around half of its $215 million in revenue came from licensing consumer products.
And the MPA is trying to show the same is true of
