Categories Men's magazine Publisher EMAP Australia Final issue— Number January 2000252 | Frequency Monthly First issue February 1979 Country Australia | |
Australian Playboy was an Australian imprint of Playboy magazine.
Content
In 1979 Kerry Packer's ACP Magazines secured the Australian rights to Playboy magazine.
Australian Playboy featured similar content to the lead US edition, and included interviews, feature articles and entertainment reviews. The magazine would rely heavily on the US edition for pictorials, and thus reprinted many pictorials featuring popular US Playmates and celebrities including Pamela Anderson, Erika Eleniak and Anna Nicole Smith.
An Australian Playmate of the Year would be crowned annually.
The first edition issued February 1979, featured Rosemary Paul on the cover and Karen Pini as the centerfold, selling nearly 200,000 copies.
In 1982 Packer sold the rights to Mason Stewart Publishing, publishers of surfing magazine, Trax, and rock music magazine, RAM. Sales settled at around 140,000.
The biggest selling edition of Australian Playboy was the October 1995 issue with Dannii Minogue on the cover and Cynthia Brown as the centerfold.
By 1996 sales of the magazine had fallen to 36,000 and in 1997 Mason Stewart Publishing was taken over by British publisher EMAP International Limited, with Philip Mason becoming non-executive chairman of EMAP Australia.
Playboy was not sold in the state of Queensland during 2004 and 2005 but returned as of 2006. Due to declining sales, (circulation - 25,000), the last issue was January 2000, which featured Elina Giani on the cover and Jodi Ann Paterson as the centerfold.
Notable Australian celebrities who have appeared on the cover or in the magazine include: