Playboy Elects Scott Flanders Chief Executive

CHICAGO (AP) — Playboy Enterprises Inc., the struggling adult-entertainment empire that may be sold, picked its new chief executive from the newspaper industry Monday, hiring away the head of the company that publishes the Orange County Register.

Scott N. Flanders will be the first permanent CEO at Playboy to come from outside the Hefner family. His naming ends a five-month search to fill the top job at the Chicago publisher and entertainment business after Christie Hefner, daughter of founder Hugh Hefner, resigned in December.

Jerome Kern has been serving as interim CEO.

In a statement Monday, the company noted Flanders, 52, helped expand online revenue and streamline operations at Freedom Communications, owner of the Orange County Register in Southern California, as well as other newspapers and TV stations.

Playboy has signaled it is open to selling the company as it struggles with losses at its namesake magazine and the effects of the recession at its more profitable entertainment and licensing units.

The company has been slashing costs, recently shuttering its offices in New York and laying off most of the 100 employees who worked there.