It was announced Monday afternoon by Playboy that Scott Flanders, 52, will succeed interim Chief Executive Jerome Kern. www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=35229

Flanders is or was chief executive of Freedom Communications, a television broadcaster and publisher of the Orange County Register, the primary local daily newspaper for the company’s hometown of Irvine, California, and the surrounding area.

From www.freedom.com- Scott N. Flanders is President and Chief Executive Officer of Freedom Communications, the nation’s 14th largest media company. He also serves on Freedom’s Board of Directors, representing the interests of Freedom’s family ownership and outside investors.

Mr. Flanders oversees the strategic direction of Freedom’s newspapers, television stations and interactive media businesses, a portfolio with annual revenues totaling nearly $1 billion.

Prior to his appointment as CEO on Jan. 1, 2006, Mr. Flanders was an Independent Director on Freedom’s Board for five years, and served as Chairman of both the Compensation and Nominating Committees. During his service, Freedom recapitalized with two private equity firms, The Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners, in 2004. The agreement allowed family members of founder Raymond Cyrus (R.C.) Hoiles to retain its controlling ownership interest in Freedom Communications.

Mr. Flanders is the former Chairman and CEO of the Columbia House Company, the world’s oldest and largest direct marketer of music and video products, with revenues totaling more than $1 billion.

Mr. Flanders joined Columbia House in September 1999, when he was recruited to be Chairman and CEO of the entity created through the merger of publicly traded online retailer CDNow and Columbia House. After determining that this merger was not in the best interests of the owners, he aborted the transaction in March 2000. AOL Time Warner and Sony Corporation, then 50/50 joint owners of Columbia House, asked him to lead a turnaround of the Columbia House business. By initiating significant management reorganization and a strategic shift in focus, Mr. Flanders returned Columbia House to profitability.

At the request of his Board, Mr. Flanders facilitated a leveraged buyout of Columbia House by The Blackstone Group in June 2002. In conjunction with the transaction, AOL Time Warner and Sony Corporation each retained minority ownership interests. In May 2005, Blackstone sold the company to Bertelsmann in a transaction which closed in July 2005.

In 1998, Mr. Flanders co-founded Telstreet.com, an Indianapolis-based e-commerce company specializing in helping consumers shop for wireless products and services. He remained Chairman of Telstreet until the company merged with Buy.com in August 2000.

Mr. Flanders served as president of Macmillan Publishing, the world’s largest computer and reference publisher. The company’s revenues increased from $5 million to $500 million in fourteen years under his leadership.

His responsibilities at Macmillan spanned four of the company’s operating units: Macmillan Computer Publishing, Macmillan Reference Publishing, Macmillan Education and Training and Macmillan Digital. During his 14-year career at Macmillan, Mr. Flanders established Macmillan as the world’s largest computer book publisher and the first publisher of books about the Internet. Macmillan published hundreds of titles about the Internet, e-commerce and the leading Internet companies and was the first publisher to sell books on the Internet. When he left the company at the end of 1998, Macmillan ranked as the 10th largest publisher in America and the 4th largest Amazon vendor.

Mr. Flanders is an active investor in technology and media companies, including: the Gazelle Fund, a technology-oriented venture capital fund; and a limited partner of Tri-Artisan Partners, a New York-based merchant bank.

Mr. Flanders serves as a board member on a number of companies and associations including: eHealth, Inc. and the Newspaper Association of America. He is President of the Board of Visitors of the Indiana School of Law, board member of the Columbia Business School Media Forum, and the University of California, Irvine, His civic activities include: the Board of Directors for the Orange County Technology Action Network (OCTANe), Vice Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Board of Trustees of the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, California and past Chairman of the Indianapolis Civic Theatre.

Mr. Flanders holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Colorado, received a Juris Doctorate from Indiana University and is also a C.P.A.

He is married and has three daughters.