Playboy comes to the Baltics

RIGA- Latvia's Zurnals Santa publishing house will publish Playboy magazine in Latviaand Lithuania, said the company's board chairman Ivars Zarins.

He said that the first issue of Playboy will be published in Latvianext year, while the first issue in Lithuaniawill be available this fall. Zarins did not reveal the sum invested inobtaining the license for publishing of the magazine.

"Playboy Latvian and Lithuanianissues will be operated according to a franchise agreement," he said,adding that they will be adapted to the local readers. "There will beinterviews with local people, and local topicalities described," he said. Theeditors of the Latvian and LithuanianPlayboy magazines are not known yet.

Zarins said that the publishing house plans to publish another magazine in Latviathis year, but no other details were revealed. Asked about the company's plansto publish a magazine in Estonia, Zarins said that thecompany has no such plans.

Zurnals Santa in 2006 generated 7.06 million lats (EUR 10.04 mln) in sales,up 15.1 percent from 2005, and earned 1.279 million lats in profit, up 10.4percent year-on-year.

According to the Latvian business register, the company is owed by thepublishing house chief editor Santa Dansberga Anca (55 percent) and Zarins (45percent).