Evaluating Playboy’s waning Chicago presence

Evaluating Playboy’s waning Chicago presence
Despite moving most of its top brass to Los Angeles, Chicago remains home to Playboy headquarters. AP/Laura Rauch
Evaluating Playboy’s waning Chicago presence
Despite moving most of its top brass to Los Angeles, Chicago remains home to Playboy headquarters. AP/Laura Rauch

Evaluating Playboy’s waning Chicago presence

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When the TV series The Playboy Club was axed earlier this month, the move suggested Playboy may no longer be ready for primetime. Playboy has been in Chicago since 1953 when Hugh Hefner first started to publish the storied men’s magazine. But recent moves indicated that the company’s interests lay elsewhere. The founder and other top brass are mostly in Los Angeles and Playboy’s potential for growth has long been in TV production and licensing, not publishing. Lynne Marek reports on Playboy Enterprises for Crain’s Chicago Business so Eight Forty-Eight caught up with her Monday to talk about the company’s future in Chicago. She started by saying that even though “Hef” is on the West Coast, the company still has some presence here in his hometown.