Hot off the press… Hugh Heffner has joined the outsourcing band wagon and has turned to it in order to cut costs. Outsourcing what, I hear you ask. To many Heffner fan’s dismay, he is not outsourcing his own bunny duties. Instead, Playboy Enterprises is outsourcing all its magazine functions to America Media. Not as exciting as you thought this news piece would be ey?!

American Media will soon handle the production, circulation, advertising sales, marketing and other services of Playboy magazine and the company’s other publications. The mens’ magazine has set March 2010 as the latest date to outsource its functions. The Round Up is certain American Media will continue to produce the publication in the highest ‘quality’.

So while the Playboy Enterprise gets accustomed to the idea of outsourcing the usual suspects have been forming outsourcing agreements all week. The UK’s troubled Royal Mail has signed a cloud computing contract with CSC. The contract is the first cloud computing services agreement of this scale. The contract may work in the mail giant’s favour. The fact that they are working to improve processes may take the media spotlight off of the recent strikes and perhaps reduce budget pressures?

There was also good news for Mitie, a support services and asset management firm, which has posted a rise in profits in the six months leading up to September. The firm is confident in the growth of outsourcing, which is good news all round for the sourcing industry.

What a wide range of outsourcing fun this week. Looks like 2010 is going to be a good one.