Under FriendFinder, which ended up filing for bankruptcy in 2013, Penthouse went through “several iterations of bloodless overlords” that Holland says were great at raising money but had no idea what to do with the Penthouse brand.Ībout three years ago and with the help of Wikipedia, Holland started looking into taking control of the company through a management buyout and quickly had flaky would-be equity partners lining up. FriendFinder, an adult social networking and video chat company, acquired Penthouse out of bankruptcy from its down-on-his-luck founder, Bob Guccione, in 2003. Holland, a longtime adult film director who formerly ran Penthouse’s broadcast, publishing, licensing and clubs divisions, took over the company in February after a 2 ½-year acrimonious management buyout from its previous owner, FriendFinder Networks. The June 2016 edition of Penthouse magazine. “We have a business model that took publishing, which was $3 million negative, and has in three months turned it - we don’t have the year-end projections - but what we anticipate is six- to seven-figure positive,” Holland told IBT.
And it has to make money - which she said it already is doing. The pictures have to be explicit, but not gratuitous. People may not read it for the articles, but Holland wants to make sure the articles are worth reading. It is acid, profane, unapologetically sexual and, in her opinion, authentically Penthouse. Sitting in a conference room strewn with magazines and extremely NSFW storyboards is Kelly Holland, Penthouse’s freshly minted chief executive, who spent the last few hours of her Friday afternoon speaking with International Business Times about Facebook, Ronald Reagan and why bad sex is a malignant marriage-killer.īut mostly she talked about her vision for the iconic magazine she now runs. The unmarked headquarters of Penthouse is tucked away amid the strip malls and tract homes in this Los Angeles suburb, which is also the epicenter of the adult industry. It’s the recent narrative of Penthouse magazine, one of the most familiar, feel-good names in print. If that sounds like something out of a wish-fulfillment fantasy cooked up by the media industry, that’s because it kind of is. What’s more, after years of being in the red, said magazine is finally turning a profit again. Its new editor talks about bringing in big-name writers and photographers, and the CEO of the company is a journalist herself. The magazine didn't shy away from celebrity intrigue either, featuring both sanctioned and unsanctioned photographs of stars such as Madonna and Vanessa Williams-images that only gained infamy after the subjects had risen to fame.Īs the years progressed, Penthouse ventured into more niche territories, showcasing content that catered to various 'fetish' interests, from urination and bondage to 'facials,' charting a new, albeit controversial, course in the chronicles of adult entertainment.CHATSWORTH, California - While seemingly every other media company tries to find a voice on Snapchat and figure out Facebook Live, a 50-year-old magazine is doubling down on its print edition. It was the trailblazer in presenting female pubic hair, escalating to full-frontal displays and eventually, unabashed images of vulva and anus. Penthouse boldly redefined the visuals of men's publications, pioneering the explicitness of its pictorials. His dedication to the craft was such that he would spend days perfecting a single photoshoot. A self-taught visionary, he infused his photographic technique with his painting acumen, cultivating a signature aesthetic of ethereal, soft-focus imagery that would become synonymous with the Penthouse brand.
Crafted from the ambition of Bob Guccione, it was positioned as a daring rival to Hugh Hefner's Playboy, pushing boundaries with a blend of sensational editorial content and hard-hitting investigative journalism-digging into government cover-ups and scandalous revelations.įrom its modest inception, Penthouse was a product of Guccione's personal touch, his own lens capturing the early models due to budget constraints.
In the vibrant landscape of men's magazines, Penthouse emerged as a provocative contender in 1965, shaking up the UK scene before taking on North America in 1969.
