Penthouse goes bang

General Media, the publishers of flesh magazine Penthouse, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York last week. Founded in 1969 as a raunchier rival of Playboy, the mag had a circulation of 5 million at its peak, however it was caught between the willingness of celebrities to appear in skimpy clothing in new magazines such as Maxim, Stuff and FHM, and the explosion of hardcore images over the internet, in video stores and on late-night cable television. By last December its circulation had fallen to 530 000.