Earlier this year, I attended a breakfast with Christie Hefner–yes, that Christie
Hefner. She was speaking at the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Execs
as an example of an inspiring leader. I went partially out of curiosity
(what is Hef's daughter like?) and partially because I knew that
Playboy is one of the few publishing giants to successfully navigate
its way into new media (first cable TV and then the internet).
I came away from the meeting with a new role model. She is
approachable, honest and highly principled. And although I didn't bring
a notepad, I ended up scribbling quotes and comments that i knew I'd
want to remember.
For a woman from an old-school business, she is remarkably in-touch with
todays trends–and for a Chicago-based company–is very tech savvy.
When I asked her about the secret to Playboy's success in TV and
Internet–here's what she said (note: I may not get the wording quite
right here but hopefully the message comes through):
"I knew that Playboy's core competency is not publishing. It's our
brand and what we stand for–liberal values and high-quality,sexy,
sophisticated entertainment. When we moved into new media, the first
thing we did was to define the intersection between what our brand
means and how people were using the medium. So with tv, we recognized
that people watch tv in a social way, and although Playboy is edited as
a men's magazine, the Playboy Channel had to be for women too. And we
dropped a lot of our content, focusing on creating new content that was
consistent with our brand. …we did the same thing online, thinking
first about how people use the internet, and creating a broad range of
content options, including premium subscription content, gaming, and
e-commerce. We tried both advertising-driven models and premium content
models. I am a big believer in "bet a little, learn a lot" and we
continue to change our approach, with a major relaunch for our website
currently underway."
This comment alone made the breakfast worthwhile for me, but it was
Christie's other interests–ethics in business and liberal
politics–that really impressed me.
