Penthouse Retools, Goes After Lad Books

Realizing that perhaps X rated pictorials are not the way to go if you want a magazine to be successful, Penthouse will undergo a $50 million makeover and relaunch this Fall with a softer approach to pictorials and editorial.

Marc Bell, who heads up the group that saved Penthouse from death with an $85 million infusion, says the new Penthouse will target readers of the lad books such as Maxim and FHM who, he claims, have become "bored with air-brushed models and sophomoric humor." And the new Penthouse won't airbrush?