Hugh Hefner has decided to part with Playboy.

The founder of Playboy magazine 83-year-old Hugh Hefner is considering selling the magazine, whose first issue came out in 1953, reports The Daily Telegraph. According to unconfirmed reports, the publication of an estimated $ 200 million.
Although the magazine remains the most popular in the U.S. edition of men, it runs continuously falling. If in the 1970's, Playboy published in 7 million copies, is currently the circulation dropped to three million. Only during the first three months of 2009, losses amounted to 8.6 million editions of dollars.
In order to reduce costs have been laid off 25 per cent of the magazine in Los Angeles and New York. One of the main reasons for reducing the demand for Playboy called the rapid development of Internet and the associated facilitation of access to paid and free pornoresursam.
One of the most famous brands in the world of Playboy began with a circulation of 70 thousand copies. Hefner was not sure whether he had the opportunity to release the second issue, but publication was immediately gain popularity and by the end of the first decade of its circulation has exceeded one milllion. Playboy goes around the world, Russian edition version was released in 1995.
In accordance with editorial policy Hefnera erotica was not only appealing party publications. Along with photos of celebrities (for the magazine at various times posed Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Cindy Crawford, Pamela Anderson and others), Playboy published the stories of such writers as Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Vladimir Nabokov, and Margaret Atwood, Stephen King. The magazine has published material on the problem of political life and social problems. At various times he gave interviews, Martin Luther King, Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat and many other policies.