NUDE & IMPROVED

Skin is back in after Playboy sales, subs sag

No-nudes were apparently not good news at Playboy magazine.

The 63-year-old iconic men’s periodical is bringing back nude models in its upcoming issue — one year after banning naked photos in an effort to boost circulation and attract more main stream advertisers.

That effort obviously has failed as circulation tumbled and new ad revenue failed to overcome that decline.

Newsstand sales in the second half of 2016 plummeted 42 percent from the prior year, to a skinny and unattractive 18,643 copies, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

At the same time subscribers, nakedly upset, stopped renewing. Subscriptions fell 33 percent to 521,397 in the six months ended Dec. 31.

The moves back to nude photos comes four months after Cooper Hefner, the son of Editor-in-Chief and founder Hugh Hefner, and an outspoken critic of the move to ban nude models, was installed as chief creative officer.

Cooper Hefner hopes to reverse the circulation plunge with the redesigned March/ April issue now hitting newsstands — with the cover cutline: “Naked is normal.”

“I’ll be the first to admit the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake,” Hefner tweeted Monday. “Today, we’re taking our identity back and rediscovering who we are.”

The new issue displays breasts and butts, but not fullfrontal nudity that had typified the title before the switch with the March 2016 issue.

Model Elizabeth Elam is introduced as Miss March 2017 in a photo spread shot by Gavin Bond.

Meanwhile, the staff that came aboard to oversee the transition to no nudes is turning over once again.

Hugh Garvey, who took over as editorial director five months ago, resigned late last month. Garvey had been the deputy editor. Creative Director Mac Lewis also resigned around that time and was replaced by his assistant creative director, Chris Deacon.

Rizvi Traverse, the investment company that took over majority control in 2011, had been scrambling to sell the company or attract new investors, sources said.

Ben Kohn, managing partner of Rizvi and acting chief executive of Playboy, said in late October that there were no plans to change the policy of scantily clad women back to nudes.

Insiders said he feared it would dampen merchandising and licensing efforts, which brings in the bulk of the company revenues for the parent company.

Kohn declined to comment on Monday on the news.