SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Playboy Enterprises Inc. has announced it will launch a digital edition of its popular flagship men’s magazine in conjunction with its October issue.The online version of Playboy, being produced in association with the San Francisco-based company Zinio Systems, will be identical to the hard copy version, the company said.

“We see this is a natural extension of the Playboy brand,” Chief Executive Christie Hefner said, adding that Playboy’s increased distribution and worldwide access over the web will boost its advertisers’ reach.

Its new web property will provide “additional advertising sales opportunities as we are able to meet the growing demand of companies to market online by offering ad-sponsored links,” Hefner said.

The new digital Playboy will debut on September 13th, the same day the October print version hits newsstands nationwide.

To view the digital version of Playboy, users will need to download the Zinio Reader, which is free. The software, which is compatible with both PC and Mac machines, allows customers to navigate content via hyperlinks and text search, archive the online content, e-mail copies to friends, and zoom in on text and images.

The venerable adult entertainment company, now in its sixth decade of operation, has faced strong competition in the online world, where it has struggled to stand out among the tens of thousands of other adult sites, both hardcore and softcore. In the offline world, mainstream magazines that cross over into adult territory, like Maxim and FHM, have challenged Playboy’s stronghold on the men’s magazine market.

The company, which also distributes calendars, videos and assorted other newsstand specials, reported revenues of $329.9 million in 2004.