CHANGE: Playboy Might Kill Magazine to Focus on ‘World of Playboy.’ “Company switches focus to licensing, branding deals in post-Hefner era.”

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Playboy Enterprises Inc.’s controlling shareholder—private-equity firm Rizvi Traverse—is in talks to acquire the 35% stake Mr. Hefner left in trust to his heirs, a person familiar with the matter said. At the same time, the company says it is doubling down on efforts to make money from brand partnerships and licensing deals built around the Playboy name, ethos and bunny logo, with increasingly less focus on its editorial roots.

“We want to focus on what we call the ‘World of Playboy’ which is so much larger than a small, legacy print publication,” said Ben Kohn, a managing partner at Rizvi who took over as Playboy Enterprises’ chief executive in May 2016. “We plan to spend 2018 transitioning it from a media business to a brand-management company.”

Mr. Hefner’s death will hasten that transition. Rizvi, which helped him take Playboy private in 2011 in return for control of nearly two-thirds of the company, had agreed to continue publishing its flagship magazine while he remained alive. The deal also granted Mr. Hefner some ability to approve or block certain deals, people familiar with the arrangement said. Those rights don’t pass to his heirs.

It’s something of a miracle that there’s a Playboy magazine left to be shut down.