

Spring 2019 Course Offering: FTV 229/529 New Landscape of Media

Wednesdays, 7 p.m.

Instructor: Cooper Hefner, Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises

Students explore enduring principles of storytelling and examine radical changes throughout the media landscape looking into how and why new disruptive media is succeeding. Through discussion, reading, writing, and reviewing content from storied brands and content platforms like Vox Media, Refinery29, Netflix, Amazon, VICE, Playboy, and Hulu, students examine the current content and storytelling landscape and how new directors, producers, and content creators alike are defining a quickly changing media landscape for both young and old consumers. The course explores what works and what doesn’t work in media today, drawing from fields and specific topics including technology, new methods of distributing content, the evolution of digital media, millennial psychology and trends, globalization and new storytelling markets, short form and long form content, and OTT. From Reed Hastings, to Arianna Huffington, to Shane Smith students will explore, understand, and study disruptive media and their authors throughout the twentieth and twenty first century and how new storytellers, producers, and directors can best take advantage of the landscape today.

About Cooper Hefner:

Cooper Hefner is the Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises. In addition to overseeing all of the company’s creative divisions, including print and digital content and events, Mr. Hefner works alongside the advertising, licensing, and business strategy teams to ensure a cohesiveness across every channel of the Playboy brand.

After four years learning the ins and outs of the Playboy business as an observer on the company’s Board of Directors and as a key ambassador for the brand, Mr. Hefner departed Playboy to launch the media start up, HOP (Hefner Operations & Productions), which created original video and editorial content and brand events for Millennial and Gen-Y consumers. Mr. Hefner oversaw all elements of the business, acting as both the CEO and CCO. Six months after the company’s launch, Playboy Enterprises acquired HOP, paving the way for Mr. Hefner’s return to Playboy to oversee and implement the company’s creative strategy and develop new business initiatives.

Some of Mr. Hefner’s recent milestones include bringing back nudity, limiting the brand to fewer, yet more lucrative, partnerships, and dialing back spending. As reported by Forbes the company has seen earnings increase more than 39% year over year since Mr. Hefner joined the senior management team. He has overseen the introduction of Playboy’s digital paywall business strategy, which relies on subscription and sponsored content, rather than click and traditional display ads.

In addition to his work with Playboy, Mr. Hefner participates in a number of philanthropic initiatives and has held various administrative positions. He sits on the Board of Trustees for the Ojai Valley School, a non-profit educational institution widely considered to be one of the top private schools in the United States. He is on the Board of Directors for Children Of The Night, an organization that has been dedicated to fighting human trafficking and child prostitution for nearly four decades. Mr. Hefner is an Advisor to the Human Campaign, a nonprofit focused on strategically introducing the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. He advises other 5(0)1c3 organizations and for profit companies and is a member of the California State Military Reserve.

He holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.