Playboy magazine on Wednesday named a longtime staffer with a literary bent as editorial director, three months after the editor hired to rejuvenate the 50-year-old men's monthly stepped aside.
Executive Editor Christopher Napolitano, a 16-year veteran of the magazine who has been a features editor and head of its fiction department, will take over the key editorial post immediately, Playboy Enterprises Inc. said.
He succeeds James Kaminsky, a former editor of Maxim, which along with other "lad" magazines like Stuff and FHM, have challenged Playboy, Esquire and GQ for dominance in the men's magazine market.
Kaminsky resigned in April to take another role at Playboy after less than two years on the job. Along with founder Hugh Hefner, he put a greater focus on technology, gadgets, fashion, and more celebrities appearing nude or partially clothed.
"Many of the changes you see are changes I requested, and we are reaching a point where I could not be happier," the 78-year-old Hefner said.
In the first half of 2004, advertising pages rose 25 percent, while Maxim's ad pages fell 12 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.
Playboy said ad pages were expected to rise about 40 percent in the third quarter.
Hefner said Kaminsky's departure had nothing to do with the magazine's changes, but was due in part to "internal conflict with some of the staff."
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"We looked both inside and outside for several months and discovered at the top of this magazine, our editors were stronger than what was out there," Hefner said.
Napolitano, 40, was one of three executives filling the editorial director seat while Playboy searched for Kaminsky's replacement.
He joined Playboy as an editorial assistant in the fiction department and has edited pieces by well-known writers like T.C. Boyle and Paul Theroux. He said in a phone interview that he hopes to build on his literary instincts.
"I enjoy working with writers," he said. "I also have a pretty good popular touch, and I appreciate all the other features in the magazine."
Hefner added that although the new changes would stay in place, the magazine will re-emphasize some classic aspects, such as reaching out for better writers,
Best known for its nude centerfolds, the magazine has also published works by such literary heavyweights as Vladimir Nabokov, Norman Mailer and John Updike.
Currently, it has an average circulation of about 3.1 million, far below approximately 7 million reached during its heyday in the 1970s.
A decision a few years ago to move editorial operations to New York from Chicago has helped to build its profile in the literary world, Napolitano said.
"That gives us a bigger footprint in the city," Napolitano said. "I think it gives us more of an opportunity to rub up against other editors and writers at other magazines."
