New Playboy CEO Wants To Swing With More Partners

MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Playboy Enterprises Inc. hasn't had any luck attracting a buyer, but the slumping adult entertainment company had no trouble attracting its new chief executive.

"It was irresistible," incoming CEO Scott Flanders said in an interview Tuesday. "It's hard to envision a job I wouldn't have left for this opportunity."

Flanders, 52, is defecting from Freedom Communications Inc., a newspaper publisher and television station owner where he has been CEO for the past 3½ years.

He will take the helm at Playboy July 1 under a four-year contract that includes a starting salary of $875,000, with annual raises of $25,000.

Playboy announced Flanders' hiring Monday, filling a void that opened six months ago when Christie Hefner decided to end her 20-year stint as CEO of the company founded by her father, Hugh Hefner, 56 years ago.

The Chicago-based company's interim CEO, Jerome Kern, then indicated Playboy would be willing to listen to buyout offers. But apparently no one was willing to pay a price enticing enough to get a deal done, even with Playboy's current market value hovering around $100 million.