Playboy (PLA) is a fascinating stock. As with every trade, there are two sides to the story. One side will argue that the stock has bounced nicely off the 52-week low of $2.30, and that it has room to run as the concern continues to alter its model for making money. At some point, the bull might say, the market will become excited and buy the shares.

Interesting thesis. My argument against speculating with this idea is simple: it's Playboy. You might do well; you might not. I don't know how much plainer it can be.

Now if you blame the media, someone else will have to share in the losses.

Insurance company Aviva (AV) is taking the side of camera-wielding, microphone-thrusting pushy press folks with a new form of protection that will cover everything from electronics to foot-in-mouth syndrome (i.e., liability). The insurance product will be available to a variety of companies, including both online and print publishers, broadcasters, photographers and marketing and advertising companies. So, if you're responsible for the news, the ads or the process of putting them in front of eyeballs, Aviva probably has you in mind.

Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (PLA) published its quarterly numbers today, and while there were some positive developments, overall, I think it's safe to say that the stock is a risk that should be avoided. Unless, of course, you simply want to roll the dice and speculate.

Hey, nothing wrong with having a little fun, I suppose, although there surely are more attractive speculative bets out there. According to , Playboy lost 83 cents per share in Q4. Last year at this time, there was a loss of $4.40 per share.

The broader economy is showing signs that we can at least interpret as positive, but this doesn't extend to the media industry, it seems. Condé Nast's ad page results are out for its 2009 issues, now that the last issue of the year has been sold for each of them ... and the situation is grim.

Condé Nast lost 8,359 ad pages this year, according to a report released on Wednesday. Ad pages have plunged 30% this year. Cost cutting has been used to offset the revenue declines, with more than 450 positions removed this year and several magazines shuttered, including Gourmet and Modern Bride.

Eventually, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) will just be Warner Brothers, HBO, and Turner Networks, says Gordon Crawford, managing director of The Capital Group.

Why does this guy's opinion matter? Well, his company is Time Warner's biggest shareholder. He sees the coming divestiture of AOL (to which BloggingStocks belongs) as part of a broader effort that will eventually include the sale of its print division.

Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the publisher of the Harry Potter books, issued its first-quarter numbers on Thursday. Although things do seem to be improving, I can't say I was wholly enchanted by the data.

Net sales from continuing operations rose 14%. Okay, that's a good start. Double-digit rises are always respectable. But then we get to the bottom line. Scholastic, which is a related business to McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP), lost 68 cents per share from continuing operations. Now, sure, the loss was considerably less severe than the year-ago black ink of $1.13 per share. But I always get nervous when I read about losses. Can't help it.

It seems that no print publication is immune from the wrenching changes in the publishing industry. Look at Reader's Digest. The company said it will likely file for a so-called prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The main reason: to pare down the heavy debt load.

Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA) is still around? I was surprised to hear that it was, according to a news article from Reuters detailing the struggling media company's second-quarter results. Unfortunately, Playboy remains a puzzle. How in the world is management going to turn the ship around?

Playboy's top line fell by 15%. The bottom line booked a loss of 26 cents per share. Expectations were for 23 cents per share to be lost. In the year-ago period, Playboy lost 10 cents per share. I think it's plainly obvious that Playboy just isn't the force it once was. Pretty sad to see this icon slowly fade into irrelevance as the digital revolution continues to devalue its historic brand equity.

There's been some news on the Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle, the company's electronic substitute for real paper books. According to this source, everything is coming along fine for the product from a statistical point of view. An estimate of Kindle sales from Citigroup Global Markets puts the number of units sold last year at 500,000. By 2010, it's said that the Kindle may lead to $1.2 billion of derivative sales. I was surprised to learn that this sales number would possibly represent 4% of Amazon's top line.

On a reported basis, Playboy said it lost $0.41 per share. If you strip out charges, you get a loss of $0.15 per share. This number was a few cents better than the expectations of analysts according to this source. Be that as it may, they certainly don't meet my expectations. The adjusted loss is essentially the same as last year's number. I suppose we have to give the interim CEO Jerome Kern a chance. As you'll recall, Christie Hefner finally gave up her throne earlier in the year (thankfully).

The publishing industry might be in the toilet, but former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is doing just fine.

The Associated Press reports that the former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signed a three-book deal with Crown Publishers that guarantees her at least $2.5 million. The first book will be a memoir of her years in the Bush Administration, followed by a book about her family, followed by a young-adult version of her life story.