Forbes.com- Lost in the buzz following Christie Hefner's resignation from Playboy in December was other, more important news: the appointment of Jimmy Jellinek as editorial director, making him the man in charge of saving the magazine.
Jellinek, 34, is a curious choice to handle the bunny's rebranding. Cantankerous and prone to fighting, he's the former editor of lad magazines Maxim and Stuff. He once described his editing jobs as "bitch-slapping" mainstream culture and called Men's Health Editor David Zinczenko a "schmuck."
As editorial chief at Heavy.com, Jellinek hosted his own webcast, "The Jimmy Show," where he urinated on a police car and sported an orange afro as he chased after rioting concert fans. Among his interviews were a specialist in removing road kill and the maker of the world's first flatulence-proof underwear.
Jellinek promises no such laddie hijinks at the new Playboy. What he plans, he says, is "a return to our golden age," producing a magazine like "the Playboy of the 1960s, which occupied the political and moral high ground." There will be more columnists and the same classic interviews with leading thinkers like economist Paul Krugman, whose interview will appear in a upcoming issue.
Jellinek says his competition is not adult magazines or online porn but the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. "We want to be a magazine of ideas that leads the national conversation."
Which makes Jellinek's first major deal to re-create the old Playboy, well, incongruous. Last month Jellinek hired former Guns 'N Roses bassist Duff McKagan to write a financial column for both the magazine and Playboy.com.
Among his fans, McKagan is known more for his drug and alcohol problems than his financial prowess. After binging on a gallon of vodka a day, his doctor told him his pancreas had "exploded." Jellinek says McKagan will dispense business advice based on his rock star experience and the fact he once took courses at the Albers School of Business at Seattle University.
