Playboy Reports 1Q Earnings; Digital Down $5.9 Million

Playboy has released their earnings results for the first quarter of 2009 and a comparison with same quarter 2008. Normally we don’t cover earnings releases but I thought this one was interesting.

The company has reduced headcount 25% since last October. Playboy also noted in the release that they expect to report a 39% decline in Playboy magazine advertising revenues in the 2009 second quarter compared to last year.

Playboy Interim Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jerome Kern said, “A revamped Playboy.com free site, which we recently introduced, creates a web experience that is more attractive to both consumers and advertisers. In spite of the difficult economy, we believe that the new web site coupled with cost reduction measures we’ve implemented will create a trend of improving margins and higher profits in the digital business by year end.”

The net revenue statement shows the Digital segment net revenues dropping from $15.2 million last year to $9.3 this year.