This is just my perspective, but what I think they are trying to do is to attract the women that were previously unavailable to them as a nude magazine. The women that would've posed nude for them, they can do it through other means, reach a bigger audience, make more money, but those women who men still want to see in sexy, barely there clothing, will now be more willing to pose for playboy.
Imagine how much your nakie collection will be worth now?!
On another note, I remember when this picture of Adriane Galisteu came out, Brazil never saw such a surge in couples shaving each other's private areas...
Thanks to the Internet, nudity is everywhere. We have become inundated and desensitized. It is no longer the exclusive perk of Playboy and the few other publications that at one time provided it to a mass audience. There is no mysterious or taboo quality to it anymore. Publications such as Maxim, FHM and others like them are what is popular now and Playboy is now adapting to the times.