• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, January 18, 2016

It’s the end of an era, or something. Penthouse magazine owner FriendFinder Network announced Friday that it will cease publishing the skin mag’s print edition and switch to a digital-only format.

The magazine’s print subscribers will henceforth receive digital subscriptions to its Web site. The company is also closing the magazine’s New York offices and consolidating all operations at the FriendFinder headquarters in Los Angeles.

There’s always a bit of editorial judgment involved when covering pornography. Unlike Playboy, which might indulgently be described as “cheesecake” or “pinups,” if you happen to be my great uncle, Penthouse was definitely pornography, in keeping with Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s famous dictum “I know it when I see it.”

Nobody was claiming to read it for the articles, per Playboy. It was porn, porn, porn, all the way down.

That said, the title founded by Bob Guccione in 1965 was massively successful, with a circulation of over 5 million at its peak, giving Guccione a net worth of $400 million in 1982. At the height of his success, his publishing empire, General Media, which once included Spin, Omni, Longevity and special-interest auto titles, was valued at $4 billion, with extensions in video and book publishing.

It was also in the spotlight. In 1984, its publication of nude photos of Vanessa Williams, the first African-American Miss America, touched off a firestorm of news coverage, prompting the pageant to force her to give up the crown. (Miss America apologized last year.)

However, like other prurient publications purveying pervy pictures, Penthouse fell prey to changing media consumption habits, as the rise of digital media unleashed a torrent of free porn on the Internet.

After declaring bankruptcy in 2004, Penthouse merged with FriendFinder Networks in 2007, which declared bankruptcy in 2013.

The company positioned the closing of the print edition as a timely strategic move in a statement to The Wall Street Journal: “Reimagined for the preferred consumption of content today by consumers, the digital version of Penthouse magazine will combine and convert everything readers know and love about the print magazine experience to the power of a digital experience.”

Playboy published its last issue with nude photos, for January-February, in December.

Back in 2014, Hustler founder Larry Flynt told Bloomberg TV: “We can see the handwriting on the wall” for the print edition of the raunchy, down market mag, although it continues publishing the print edition for now. Flynt noted that the print magazine constitutes just 10% of the company’s total business nowadays.