I agree it&#x27;s purely a business decision, but I suspect it&#x27;s a genuine attempt to redefine the magazine -- essentially as a head-on rival to <i>Esquire</i> (which is pretty much Playboy without the pictures). This allows Playboy to address a larger market -- i.e. people who would actually be interested in the articles but don&#x27;t want to be seen as buying porn.<p>Of course, it&#x27;s still called Playboy, so... eh whatever.