Playboy magazine to resume publishing nude photos

Brianna Chambers contributed to this report.

Just over a year after the magazine elected to stop publishing nude pictures, Playboy magazine chief creative director Cooper Hefner said it will resume the practice.

Hefner, an outspoken critic of the move to "soften" the soft-core pornography magazine and sell the magazine's infamous Playboy Mansion, once told Business Insider that the decision made him say, "What the hell is the company doing?"

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“The way the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake,” Hefner wrote in a tweet published Monday. “Nudity was never the problem because nudity isn’t a problem. Today we’re taking our identity back and reclaiming who we are.”

>> Previous story: Playboy to stop publishing nude photos

For more than a year, Playboy magazine declined to publish images of naked women, seeking a repositioning of the brand, more prestigious advertisers and more prominent placement on magazine racks. That will end next month, when women will reclaim the pages of the magazine in topless and almost fully naked photographs.

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The magazine’s new issue says “Naked is Normal” on the cover.

Hefner, 25, is the youngest of Hugh Hefner's four children. His mother is Hugh Hefner's second wife, 1989 Playmate of the Year Kimberley Conrad. Hugh Hefner, 86, married his third wife, December 2009 Playmate of the Month Crystal Harris, 30, in 2012.

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