Jimmy Jellinek Profiled in Chicago Magazine

Jimmy Jellinek, the young editorial director of Playboy magazine and chief content officer of Playboy Enterprises, is profiled in a good article by David Bernstein in the current issue of Chicago.

Jellinek's comments in the article back up his pledge when he was named to the editorial directorship of the magazine: reinvigorate the title by returning it to its 1960s and 1970s heyday of being an intelligent journal for men.

His potential for success is downplayed by none other than Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni, but in this case I have to disagree with Husni. If the question is whether or not Playboy can get back its one-time (and only brief) 7 million circulation, then of course not. But, as we saw recently, the magazine is able to make a profit, and it has done so through a combination of brutal cost cutting, outsourcing, combining two issues, and adding that Jellinek formula. I think he's deserving of respect; the magazine of late has actually been worth reading, worth saving, and worth anticipating (and I'm gay, so let's just skip the cliched "read it for the articles" line -- people have always done so).

The article is worth checking out because it also gives some interesting insight into Jellinek's CCO duties, rejecting ideas for magazine features or cable TV programs that are off-base. At least in the examples given in the article, he uses good judgement.

Media Roundup: Jimmy Jellinek Becomes God, Fangoria Previews Stephen King, & More

The latest and maybe greatest:

• Fangoria features an excerpt/preview of the exclusive article by Stephen King slated to run over its next two issues: "What's Scary." You can read the preview. Or come on, don't be a chump. Buy the mag!
  
• New York-based media dude Andrew Fox is claiming to be bidding on lad-mag Maxim, even reportedly telling the mags' owners that if they didn't sell, the magazine would close by spring 2010. The problem? Maxim says it hasn't received a bid and is not in talks for a sale. When writing about Maxim, we can include the obligatory sentence we use with every magazine these days: The magazine has seen a serious erosion in its advertising pages in the past year and it has suffered financial strains that have helped it lose much of the luster it once held in the marketplace.
• So The Advocate is no longer a stand-alone print magazine, right? Well, then why did the company just promote its EIC, Jon Barrett, to the new role of editorial director of Advocate Group, and why is he tasked with growing the brand in "print, online, and television iterations and the HIV Plus brand as well as SheWired.com and PlanetOut.com, which also now operate under The Advocate Group banner"?
• Giant magazine has ceased print publication and will now join the ethereal realm as an online-only brand, reports FishbowlNY.
• Also from Gotham's bowl-o-fish people, is this news that recently shuttered upscale foodie magazine Gourmet has extended itself inside a Condé Nast Epicurious app. Frankly, it's a widget.
• Playboy Editorial Director Jimmy Jellinek has been promoted to God Emperor of Dune -- no, wait, just to chief content officer, a newly created role in which he will oversee all content for the brand's print, online, mobile, TV, film, and radio efforts. Presumably this comes with a company car, an extra secretary, and an additional 30 hours in the day.
  

My previous media roundup.

Magazine Views: Making Good Plans

One of the two oddest moves that Playboy magazine made a decade ago was moving its main editorial office from Chicago to New York when it hired new Editorial Director James Kaminsky. (The other oddest move was hiring James Kaminsky.) The magazine undid one of those moves after a couple years, replacing Kaminsky with Christopher Napolitano. Now, in the midst of an economic downturn that's savaging pretty much every business in every country in the world, Playboy Enterprises is undoing the other move and is moving its offices back to Chicago.
That's a good move. There are too many national magazines that are published out of Gotham, and they tend to take on a similar world view and become less distinctive in the process.
In the process, they're making another change that gives one pause. Napolitano won't be making the trip, reportedly because of family commitments in NYC, but he will be staying on as editor-at-large. One never knows how long those "editor-at-large" gigs last; they're often a way to give someone a place to hang their hat until they find another job. But whatever it is, Napolitano has done a fine job as editorial director for the past six or so years, so one wishes him well.
But the eyebrow-raising move is the handover of the editorial director's title to Jimmy Jellinek, who has been heading up the magazine's digital content and will now oversee both print and online. That combo is being seen elsewhere, too. The question is whether Jellinek -- like Kaminsky, a veteran of crude-boy title Maxim -- is right for Playboy. Forbes raises questions about that, noting his past statements and actions that are more suited to a college humor magazine than a magazine that has housed John Updike and William F. Buckley.

But I'm heartened by Jellinek's stated intention with the magazine. As Forbes reports:

What he plans, he says, is "a return to our golden age," producing a magazine like "the Playboy of the 1960s, which occupied the political and moral high ground." There will be more columnists and the same classic interviews with leading thinkers like economist Paul Krugman, whose interview will appear in a upcoming issue.
Jellinek says his competition is not adult magazines or online porn but the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. "We want to be a magazine of ideas that leads the national conversation."

He's got the right aim, if that's his target. I'd bet that the vast majority of Americans who know anything about Ayn Rand or Sarte can attribute that familiarity to interviews the two thinkers gave to Playboy in the 1960s. A mix of fun and thought -- that's a great combination, and it gives one reason to expect a lively magazine and web site even in these brutal economic times.