NEW YORK, NY — Key hires and an effort to “soften” its content have Penthouse’s executives hopeful that the magazine can regain its former market-share and profitability, reports MediaWeek.com.Penthouse corporate heads Marc Bell and Daniel Stanton, who acquired the bankrupt company in 2004, told MediaWeek that softer pictorials and a greater volume of “lifestyle content,” are part of a strategy to bring back advertisers and readers – as well as distributors, many of whom dropped the magazine when it took a more hardcore turn during the 1990s.

According to MediaWeek, the process of remaking the magazine began in earnest with the hiring of Diane Silberstein, who came aboard as president and publisher in January, and will continue apace with Mark Healy at the helm, later this month.

Healy, hitherto the articles editor for Condé Nast publication GQ, said he aims to establish the magazine as a new industry standard in the “sexual lifestyle” arena.

“There’s not a good magazine out there where you get what I consider a lively and contemporary discussion about sex and relationships,” Healy told MediaWeek. “There is a great opportunity to focus on what Penthouse does better than anybody else in terms of the sexual content.”

Healy said he will continue the magazine’s emphasis on humor and consumer information – Penthouserecently introduced a new humor column, as well as product reviews and advice on subjects like health and grooming – making Penthouse into something akin to a Maxim that does away with the formality of that final shred of clothing.

When Silberstein, a former executive at Playboy, took over, Penthouse stopped running hardcore pictorials depicting graphic sex acts in part, Silberstein told MediaWeek, because readers “want to see a hot girl in various stages of undress, but they also want something left to the imagination.”

The magazine has also ceased running ads with “strong sexual content,” a move that, according to MediaWeek, has resulted in a drop of over 4-percent in the magazine’s ad pages to date this year.

While the move may have reduced advertising, it has helped Penthouse in terms of circulation, as many more locations of major booksellers like Borders and Barnes & Noble have begun carrying the magazine again. Citing the Audit Bureau of Circulations, MediaWeek says that “paid and verified” circulation was up 2.9-percent in the first half of 2006.

Some advertisers that had shied away from Penthouse during its run as a hardcore publication have returned as well, according to Silberstein, including Lifestyle condoms, and Jose Cuervo tequila.

Still, some critics say that the move back towards a more mainstream men’s magazine publication won’t necessarily save Penthouse, noting that there’s now more competition in that area than ever. Some argue that the softening maneuver may only serve to blur the distinction between Penthouse and its long-time rival Playboy, which currently enjoys nearly 10 times the circulation of its competitor.