Caldwell entered the office of an executive editor at Blue Horizon and asked: “Is there something you want to tell us?” After some blustering, she learned that the magazine’s end was near.
And so began the death throes of Playgirl, which, for all its swinging history and sass, ended remarkably unremarkably.
There were no final cocktails, no last hurrah. Instead, there was a frigidness between the Playgirl staff members and the other Blue Horizon workers. “It was kind of like a long breakup, where you’re both still living together and neither of you have left the apartment,” Weiner said.
The magazine’s editors said they were never told why the magazine was shut down. But, they said, they were always struck by the paucity of ads.
“I’m not a publishing expert, but it seems to me like it would be impossible to sustain a magazine on the quantity of ads Playgirl sold,” Collins said.
On the Monday of her last week, Caldwell was called into a morning meeting, where she received an awkward round of applause from Blue Horizon staff members. Two days later, the executive editor took Caldwell and Collins out for sushi. (Weiner had already left.)
Caldwell’s last day was Oct. 3. Weiner and Collins were not around; they had already found new jobs — Weiner as an officer manager in Brooklyn, Collins as a copy editor at a male lifestyle magazine. (Caldwell now edits at Diamond District News.)
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