• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, August 1, 2013

 Army, Air Force PX Stores Drop Nude Mags

U.S. Army soldiers and Air Force airmen will no longer be able to read Playboy, Penthouse, and other such magazines without leaving the base, following a decision by the Army & Air Force Exchange Service to stop selling them at PX stores. Navy and Marine Corps exchanges will continue selling nudie mags, at least for the time being.
 
The move comes amid increasing scrutiny of the military’s handling of sexual harassment and sexual assault, which critics like lobbying group Morality in Media allege are correlated with exposure to pornography. However, the Pentagon insists that the measure isn’t the result of a lengthy campaign by Morality in Media, which has been pressing the Department of Defense to stop selling nudie mags for years.

As recently as July 22, the Pentagon rebuffed another request to stop selling nudie mags, with Assistant Secretary of Defense Frederick Vollrath arguing that “based on the totality of each magazine's content, they were not sexually explicit.”
 
While this reasoning is open to debate, it seems the real motivation behind the Army & Air Force Exchange Service’s decision to drop the magazines was economic: Fewer people were buying them. AAFES spokesman Chris Ward was quoted as saying: “In this digital age, magazine readership and buyer-ship is declining. So it’s just a chance for us to re-evaluate our stock assortment, find out which ones are selling, which ones are not.”
 
Indeed, Playboy, etc. are just a handful of 891 magazines being dropped by the AAFES. According to the AAFES, the top-selling titles among military personnel are People, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, US Weekly, Star, Jet, Maxim, National Enquirer, Muscle & Fitness, and Woman's World.
 
Welker To Publisher, CRO for New Dr. Oz Title
 
Hearst Magazines has named Kristine Welker to the position of vice president, publisher and chief revenue officer for the publisher’s planned magazine collaboration with Dr. Mehmet Oz. The magazine -- which has yet to be named -- is scheduled to debut in the first quarter of 2014, with newsstand distribution of 350,000 and another 450,000 copies delivered directly to certain Hearst subscribers.

Welker previously served as vice president and chief revenue officer of Hearst Magazines Digital Media since 2010. Prior to that, she was the founding publisher of CosmoGIRL! Her previous position of vice president and CRO of Hearst Magazines Digital Media will be filled by Todd R. Haskell, effective September 3. Haskell comes to Hearst from the New York Times, where he served as group vice president for advertising at NYTimes.com.
 
Meredith Promotes Execs
 
Meredith Corp. has promoted a number of executives to new spots in the company. Christine Guilfoyle has been promoted to vice  president and group publisher, with additional responsibility for Allrecipes magazine, set to launch this fall. She will continue to lead Every Day With Rachael Ray and EatingWell magazines. Linda Fears has been named vice president and editor in chief of Family Circle, following eight years as EIC; she will also continue as editorial director of Meredith’s Food Content Center of Excellence.

Cheryl Brown has been named editor in chief of Allrecipes magazine, having previously served as editorial director of Recipe.com. Britta Cleveland has been promoted to senior vice president for research solutions; she joined Meredith in 2004, and most recently served as vice president for research solutions.
 
Turini Named Fashion Market Director, Cosmo
 
Cosmopolitan has named Shiona Turini to the position of fashion market director, effective August 7. Turini previously served as fashion market and beauty director for CR Fashion Book, where she played a key creative role. Before that, she was accessories director at Teen Vogue and accessories market director at W.

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