Under a new deal, Playboy will turn over all the magazine's operations except the editorial ones to American Media Inc. AMI publishes more than a dozen titles, including Star and Men's Fitness. The
five-year partnership will help return Playboy to profitability by the end of 2011, says CEO Scott Flanders.
Flanders says that freeing up cash for celebrity pictorials is a chief
aim of the deal. Actress Tara Reid will pose nude for the first time in the combined January/February issue. Flanders says he is open to outsourcing arrangements for other parts of the company as
well.
The agreement comes as Playboy entertains overtures to acquire the company. Executives confirm that the company and Hugh Hefner, its founder and editor-in-chief, have investment
banks exploring sale possibilities.
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