Was a Non-Nude Future What Playboy Needed? Here Are the Magazine's Current Stats

Hefner's son walked away from the brand last year after disagreements with the company's leadership and decision to end nakedness in the issues

Nine months after Playboy announced the end of its nude pictorials, the magazine has seen more milestone changes in the last few years than most ever expected to see from the decades-old brand. In addition to a far more clothed future and the sale of the Playboy Mansion, Hugh Hefner's youngest son has also just walked back into the family business just a few months after a very public falling out. 

Cooper Hefner, the company's former domestic and international brand ambassador, walked away from the infamous bunny brand in February after the company had announced the end of nakedness on its pages. "Playboy will continue to publish sexy, seductive pictorials of the world's most beautiful women," the magazine revealed in a statement in October 2015. 

Since that decision was made, the 24-year-old member of the Hefner dynasty had not sugarcoated his discontent with the publication's controversial new direction. "I've taken a massive step back with Playboy. Just due to that fact that I do not agree with the decisions and direction the company is actually going in," Cooper told Business Insider. "I was essentially asked to no longer participate in the board meetings because I didn't agree with his vision for the company."

A day after the interview published, the mogul took to his own website, Hop, to spell everything out. "My unwillingness to get on board with decisions like taking the company non-nude, selling the Mansion, and a laundry list of other brand initiatives, has rendered my relationship with Playboy's current CEO non-existent," he admitted. However, just five months later, the tables have turned once again and Cooper is back in the boardroom. 

"New leadership has stepped in and a team with a vision has been put in place. I'm excited to announce that Hop will be moved under Playboy and will become one of the company's sub-brands. I'll be stepping in as Playboy's Chief Creative Officer and will participate in delivering a new Playboy, a Playboy understood by Millennials, like me," he announced in an editorial on Hop. "This chapter in the company's history will be thrilling, challenging, but so rewarding and I am incredibly grateful to be a part of the team that re-introduces a brand that remains such a substantial part of my family's legacy."

As the young executive noted, the company has undergone an array of swift changes since Playboy.com ushered in a new era with its "safe for work" relaunch in 2014. A year later, the company debuted it's final naked cover star, Playboy veteran Pamela Anderson, launched five clothed issues and sold the Playboy Mansion for reportedly over $100 million—with the stipulation that Hefner Sr. live there until his death. 

"This is the right time to seek a buyer for this incredible property who understands the role the Mansion has played for our brand and enables us to continue to reinvest in the transformation of our business," Playboy Enterprises CEO Scott Flanders said in a statement to E! News when the house was first put on the market. "The Playboy Mansion has been a creative center for Hef as his residence and workplace for the past 40 years, as it will continue to be if the property is sold."

Though the wardrobes and roofs are changing over at Playboy, it seems with the return of Cooper, elements of the iconic rabbit are hopping back as the magazine finds its new footing. Yet, according to the company's current statistics, the changes have not done all that much to jilt customers one way or the other. 

It's been nine months since the company announced its non-nude future and, while many feared the major change to the brand would usher in further decline of the 63-year-old magazine, sales have remained steady. According to the company, there are about 700,000 readers and 16 million visitors to its website every month. 

While Playboy.com has increased its traffic by over 10 million visitors since two years ago, sales of the physical issue have seen "no significant difference in figures at all," the company told E! News. While no news may be good news after an arguably risky corporate decision, at the height of the magazine's fame in the 1970s, millions of issues were flying off of newsstands every four weeks. 

Still, as the hare famously learned, slow and steady wins the race.