Inside Playboy's first non-nude issue: 'The idea was to look from a boyfriend’s perspective'

It includes an essay by Bret Easton Ellis and fiction from Knausgaard.

March 2016 cover star Sarah McDaniel ((Courtesy Playboy/Theo Wenner))

Playboy goes back to the future today, with an SFW overhaul that accepts the realities of the hardcore porn present while trying to recapture the long-form journalism glory of its past (remember, it was once home to 7,000-word articles by Hunter S. Thompson).

Hitting news stands today (however many remain), it has a more contemporary feel, reflected in its choice of cover star Sarah McDaniel - a model known best for her Snapchat and Instagram.

“The idea was to look at me from a boyfriend’s perspective,” she says of the shoot, a fairly accurate mantra for the new magazine as a whole, which is aiming to ditchy its ‘seedy uncle’ rep.

Miss March 2016 Dree Hemingway’s centerfold (Courtesy Playboy/Angelo Pennetta)

In addition to featuring exclusively non-nude pictures, it brings new contributors and what it hopes is a 'renewed commitment to art', features including:

- ‘Modern Sexuality – An essay from Bret Easton Ellis’

- ’20 Questions – This month we hear from Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, the team behind “Broad City,” one of the funniest shows on television’

- ‘God Bless Birth Control – Erin Gloria Ryan takes a look at the I.U.D. which she says “has the potential to lead women into the next sexual revolution’

- ‘Francofile – the return of a high-profile interview every month by resident renaissance man James Franco’

- ‘Playboy Advisor – the magazine’s most famous column will now be written by a woman, columnist Rachel Rabbit White’

They’re even serialising Karl Ove Knausgaard.

“I know I speak for all involved when I say that creating this new Playboy magazine has been a labor of love for those fortunate enough to work on it,” said Playboy Enterprises CEO, Scott Flanders.

“We are exceptionally proud of the end result and are confident that everyone will enjoy reading it as much as we did creating it.”