В¶Third week: the realization that oneвЂ™s eyes are glazing over at the sight of photos of naked men, who all begin to look the same. Collins has a masterвЂ™s in creative writing from the New School and Corinne Weiner, 26, the magazineвЂ™s designer for its last two and a half years, was a graduate of Pratt.

Caldwell was a New Jersey girl who had helped run a community newspaper and graduated from ColumbiaвЂ™s journalism school Ms. Caldwell described as вЂњa whole horde of eager unpaid interns.вЂќ In the end, Playgirl was run by a skeleton crew of these three editors, along with what Ms. We were the only magazine that offered naked men to women.вЂќ вЂњFor better or worse, this was a real blow for feminism. вЂњI think a different kind of porn is very degrading to women, but the kind of stuff we were peddling was about what women wanted,вЂќ said Ms. Now the three editorsвЂ™ nudie magazine with feminist leanings is gone, and with it, strange and exciting career moments. In contrast to much of the slender offerings of pornography aimed at women, which tends to be softer and more story-driven than that marketed toward men, Playgirl was in-your-face. Caldwell said, selling 600,000 copies per issue in more than three dozen countries. Still, the magazine drew an avid readership, Ms. (Playboy sued Playgirl in 1973 for trademark infringement the suit was settled amicably.) Over the years, the magazine changed ownership, began catering more to gay men, and whittled its operations down. Playgirl was started 35 years ago as a feminist response to Playboy and Penthouse. It did offer women a way to see some gorgeous hot, young, sexy guys, and nothingвЂ™s wrong with that.вЂќ вЂњIt was a great idea, and it could have been done better. вЂњIt was almost a way to get back at Playboy,вЂќ said Pamela Des Barres, the famed former rock groupie, who wrote a music column for Playgirl. Yet for its writers and fans, something tangible has been lost in its closure. PlaygirlвЂ™s passing certainly will not be lamented as would the death of a more respected, or even a mildly respected, magazine.

Caldwell said Playgirl magazine suffered from the twin malaises of rising costs and declining sales Blue Horizon Media did not return repeated calls for this article. None of the magazineвЂ™s editors are involved. The last issue, dated January/February 2009, recently arrived on newsstands.ДЄlthough the Playgirl Web site is still running, the graphic content is geared more toward gay men. The womenвЂ™s dreams crashed when Blue Horizon Media, which also puts out hard-core magazines, announced it was shutting Playgirl. вЂњIt always felt like this uphill battle,вЂќ said Jessanne Collins, 29, who was PlaygirlвЂ™s senior editor. They aspired to bring Playgirl back to its roots, back to a time when the magazine covered issues like abortion and equal rights, interspersing sexy shots of men with work from writers like Raymond Carver and Joyce Carol Oates.ДЄll the while, the editors juggled the demands of the publisher, Blue Horizon Media, which they said pushed to fill Playgirl with even more nudes and fewer words. So she and her fellow editors, all women in their 20s and all relative neophytes to the world of magazines В— and pornography В— resolved to fill Playgirl with something different. When she would meet them, there was often a curious vapidity to the men, who Ms. NOT long after Nicole Caldwell became editor in chief of Playgirl magazine, she realized that looking at photos of naked men all day was not everything she had imagined it would be.

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