Playboy names newspaper publisher chief executive

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Playboy Enterprises Inc, the adult entertainment magazine publisher facing eroding advertising sales and mounting competition from free Internet pornography, named a Southern California newspaper publisher as its new chief executive on Monday.

Scott Flanders, 52, will succeed interim Chief Executive Jerome Kern, Playboy said in a statement.

Flanders is chief executive of Freedom Communications, a television broadcaster and publisher of the Orange County Register, the primary local daily newspaper for the company's hometown of Irvine, California, and the surrounding area.

He will join the company along with Olympus Media LLC Chief Financial Officer David Chemerow, who will become nonexecutive chairman.

Before his three years at Freedom Communications, Flanders was chief executive of Columbia House, which sells music and DVDs to people who sign up as members and commit to buy a minimum number of items per year.

Flanders is the first permanent CEO to be named after the resignation late last year of Christie Hefner, daughter of the magazine's founder, Hugh Hefner. She left after two decades at the company.

The magazine -- with its nude photo spreads of "Playboy Playmates" along with its "Bunny Ears" logo, videos and associated branded merchandise -- has become an American icon since Hugh Hefner began publishing it in 1953.

Despite its well-known brand, the Chicago-based company has suffered financially as more people use the Internet to search for erotic images and video.