Playboy raises the bar with 3-D centerfold

CHICAGO May 11 (Reuters) - Playboy magazine, a pioneer in featuring photographs of naked women on its pages, said on Tuesday its June issue's 3-D centerfold will be an eye-popping collectible.

It was an idea the Playboy Enterprises' PLA.N founder Hugh Hefner says he had a half-century ago when he created the monthly, but couldn't afford.

HBO, a unit of Time Warner Inc (TWX.N), is helping out with the cost of 3-D glasses bound up with the issue, which hits newsstands on Friday.

Playboy's Playmate of the Year, Hope Dworaczyk, can be seen like no centerfold has been seen before. Her offering of a glass of wine appears to come off the page, along with the rest of her.

The 3-D craze has exploded with viewers donning glasses to take in movie hits "Avatar" and "How to Train Your Dragon."

In a crowded field of magazines, Playboy has seen its circulation decline to less than 3 million from 6 million in the 1970s.

"You're constantly competing for people's time, you're competing for their attention," said Playboy editorial director Jimmy Jellinek. "You have five seconds to reach them. In order to force them to physically go to the newsstand and buy your product, you have to give them a reason. And this is a reason ...

"It's tactile. It's something that uses the platform and the medium for which it was created," he said.

(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Bill Trott)