Playboy Chairman To Step Down

Playboy Enterprises Chairman and Chief Executive Christie Hefner will exit to pursue other interests, including corporate board posts and even TV commentary.

That's according to an interview Monday with the Chicago Tribune. She told the paper she was not pressured to leave and had discussed the move with her father and company founder, Hugh Hefner.

Hefner said the board had asked her to stay on until the end of January.

Playboy Enterprises includes the flagship magazine, TV channel, home entertainment, online, wireless and radio services.

Hefner joined Playboy in 1975 and was named president in 1982 and chairman/CEO in 1988.

The Chicago Tribune was breaking news even as it was making it, with the announcement that its parent company is filing for bankruptcy protection.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.