How to fix Playboy--and magazines in general

I happened across this excellent article from Salon, written upon the ascension of James Kaminsky to the editorship of Playboy in 2002. It's right on the money, as far as
--what the best magazines used to be;
--why that worked for them, artistically AND financially;
--why they changed to what they are now;
--and why that destroys them, quickly or slowly, one-by-one.

The major problem with American magazines is that they have no idea what they should be--what they do better than other media. If they identified those things, and provided them consistently, intelligently, almost ruthlessly, they would begin to thrive again, in print, pixels or both.