Playboy launches 'nudity-free' website The Smoking Jacket

"Cube dwellers and office drones alike shall rejoice at this fun, sexy, satirical antidote to the drudgery of the work day," said Playboy editorial director Jimmy Jellinek in a statement.

The Smoking Jacket is geared toward the blogosphere, with short posts and links to viral content from other sites.

The site bills itself as 'Your safe for work source for sexy and funny videos, lifestyles articles, dating advice, celebrity gossip and more'. Articles featured on the site include 'How to get laid at work' and 'Sexiest, sloppiest and funniest viral moments from the 2010 World Cup'. The content is categorised into Girls, Entertainment, Sex, Videos and Lifestyle.

The new site also features a welcome video from Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, wearing his trademark smoking jacket.

"The Smoking Jacket isn't just something I like to wear around the mansion. It's Playboy's new safe-for-work website," he says. "Next to the mansion, it's the best hangout on the planet."

At the time of reporting, the The Smoking Jacket had 494 Twitter followers and 1,122 people had indicated they 'like' the site's page on Facebook.

According to a company statement, Playboy.com will continue offering nudity as well as longer, more reverent lifestyle articles, similar to those appearing in the magazine. Playboy.com currently boasts with over 6 million monthly unique users.

The news comes as Playboy Enterprises (PEI) reported a net loss of US$51.3 million in shares for 2009, following a $160.4 million loss the previous year.

In Asia, Playboy magazine is banned in India, mainland China, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Brunei, though Japan has a special edition with less revealing content. Australia discontinued the magazine in 2000 due to a decline in sales.

The Playboy TV network has fared better, rolling out in several Asia-Pacific markets, including Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.