Monday, December 08, 2003
The Net Effect on Porn
If you're an adult magazine publisher, you may not be able to figure out which way is up these days.
As Playboy magazine celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, Penthouse magazine's publisher has filed for bankruptcy. Playboy has seen its magazine sales dip, but its online sales and subscriptions have risen.
Most would probably blame the Internet for porn magazines' declining success. But tonight on "Tech Live," see why not everyone's blaming the Web. In fact, the answer may lie in the surprising success of a lesbian porn magazine called On Our Backs.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations, the leading circulation-tracking organization, indicates Penthouse circulation has dropped from nearly 1 million to just less than 570,000 in the last few years. Playboy has dropped by nearly 50,000. No surprise there. The Internet is where free porn thrives, and a crop of competitors showing scantily clad women have cropped up in recent years.
Read the full story
If you're an adult magazine publisher, you may not be able to figure out which way is up these days.
As Playboy magazine celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, Penthouse magazine's publisher has filed for bankruptcy. Playboy has seen its magazine sales dip, but its online sales and subscriptions have risen.
Most would probably blame the Internet for porn magazines' declining success. But tonight on "Tech Live," see why not everyone's blaming the Web. In fact, the answer may lie in the surprising success of a lesbian porn magazine called On Our Backs.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations, the leading circulation-tracking organization, indicates Penthouse circulation has dropped from nearly 1 million to just less than 570,000 in the last few years. Playboy has dropped by nearly 50,000. No surprise there. The Internet is where free porn thrives, and a crop of competitors showing scantily clad women have cropped up in recent years.
Read the full story
Saturday, December 06, 2003
Women needed to test orgasm machine
No, really. An American surgeon who has patented a device that triggers an orgasm has begun a clinical trial approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States and is looking for female volunteers.
"I thought people would be beating my door down to become part of the trial," pain specialist Dr Stuart Meloy told New Scientist magazine on Wednesday.
But so far only one woman has completed the first stage of the trial, with apparently breathtaking results, and a second has agreed to take part.
Meloy, of Piedmont Anesthesia and Pain Consultants in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is hoping to find eight more volunteers willing to have electrodes inserted in their spine and be connected to a pacemaker-size machine implanted under the skin to heighten their sexual pleasure.
The married woman who tested the machine, dubbed an orgasmatron, had not had an orgasm for four years. But during the nine days she used it, she had several.
"She even told me she had the first multiple orgasm of her life using the device," said Meloy.
He stumbled on the unexpected side-effect while using a spinal cord stimulator a few years ago to treat a patient suffering with severe back pain. The woman had already had back surgery for degenerative disk disease and fusion surgery.
When Meloy placed the electrodes into a specific spot on her spine to find nerve bundles carrying pain signals to the brain, she moaned with delight.
Read the full story
No, really. An American surgeon who has patented a device that triggers an orgasm has begun a clinical trial approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States and is looking for female volunteers.
"I thought people would be beating my door down to become part of the trial," pain specialist Dr Stuart Meloy told New Scientist magazine on Wednesday.
But so far only one woman has completed the first stage of the trial, with apparently breathtaking results, and a second has agreed to take part.
Meloy, of Piedmont Anesthesia and Pain Consultants in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is hoping to find eight more volunteers willing to have electrodes inserted in their spine and be connected to a pacemaker-size machine implanted under the skin to heighten their sexual pleasure.
The married woman who tested the machine, dubbed an orgasmatron, had not had an orgasm for four years. But during the nine days she used it, she had several.
"She even told me she had the first multiple orgasm of her life using the device," said Meloy.
He stumbled on the unexpected side-effect while using a spinal cord stimulator a few years ago to treat a patient suffering with severe back pain. The woman had already had back surgery for degenerative disk disease and fusion surgery.
When Meloy placed the electrodes into a specific spot on her spine to find nerve bundles carrying pain signals to the brain, she moaned with delight.
Read the full story
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
AVN Award Nominations Announced
The nominations for the 2004 AVN Awards were announced last week. They contain some fresh faces as well as some legends, works by established studios and by start ups, and even some new categories.
The winners will be announced at the 21st annual AVN Awards show to be held on January 10, 2004 in at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Multiple AVN Award-winner Jenna Jameson will host the event for her third time, joined by Jim Norton, an East Coast comic who draws large audiences all over the country.
"This is Jenna's third year hosting the show and she's her popularity is just amazing, so she'll be a great host," Gary Miller, the producer of the AVN Awards show said. "And Jim Norton will be great compliment for her, he really gets the idea of what we're doing and he's definitely into it."
"And he's hilarious," Miller added.
One of the show's musical guest will be hip-hop artist Lil' Jon, performing his hit song "Get Low," with special guests the Ying Yang twins. "Get Low" has been on the Billboard charts for 33 weeks, and at one time was the number one song in the country. More musical acts will be named before the show.
"This will be our best year ever. We have higher quality production equipment and staff than we've ever had before," Miller said.
Read the full story
The nominations for the 2004 AVN Awards were announced last week. They contain some fresh faces as well as some legends, works by established studios and by start ups, and even some new categories.
The winners will be announced at the 21st annual AVN Awards show to be held on January 10, 2004 in at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Multiple AVN Award-winner Jenna Jameson will host the event for her third time, joined by Jim Norton, an East Coast comic who draws large audiences all over the country.
"This is Jenna's third year hosting the show and she's her popularity is just amazing, so she'll be a great host," Gary Miller, the producer of the AVN Awards show said. "And Jim Norton will be great compliment for her, he really gets the idea of what we're doing and he's definitely into it."
"And he's hilarious," Miller added.
One of the show's musical guest will be hip-hop artist Lil' Jon, performing his hit song "Get Low," with special guests the Ying Yang twins. "Get Low" has been on the Billboard charts for 33 weeks, and at one time was the number one song in the country. More musical acts will be named before the show.
"This will be our best year ever. We have higher quality production equipment and staff than we've ever had before," Miller said.
Read the full story
Monday, December 01, 2003
Pro-Family Spokesman: Yahoo Still Portal For Porn Trade
A Family Research Council (www.frc.org) spokesman says contrary to some media reports one of the world's largest internet portal companies never got out of the porn business. In fact, the popular internet services company has actually expanded in that area.
At least one newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, recently reported that, under pressure from pro-family groups, Yahoo had taken steps to distance itself from pornography. But Pat Trueman, senior advisor at the Family Research Council, contends that this is simply not true. In reality, he says, Yahoo is continuing to enable pedophiles to carry on their sordid activities online.
"What they never got out of," Trueman says, "and what they continue to build are the clubs people can join for free that distribute hardcore pornography and child pornography." The center's spokesman says one of the ways these clubs work is by using provocative names that would entice someone to join, such as 'Young Girls for Older Men.'"
Read the full story
A Family Research Council (www.frc.org) spokesman says contrary to some media reports one of the world's largest internet portal companies never got out of the porn business. In fact, the popular internet services company has actually expanded in that area.
At least one newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, recently reported that, under pressure from pro-family groups, Yahoo had taken steps to distance itself from pornography. But Pat Trueman, senior advisor at the Family Research Council, contends that this is simply not true. In reality, he says, Yahoo is continuing to enable pedophiles to carry on their sordid activities online.
"What they never got out of," Trueman says, "and what they continue to build are the clubs people can join for free that distribute hardcore pornography and child pornography." The center's spokesman says one of the ways these clubs work is by using provocative names that would entice someone to join, such as 'Young Girls for Older Men.'"
Read the full story
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
TV Report Might Hurt Child Porn Probe: ASACP
A television news report on child pornography may include information on howadult Internet affiliate programs are being used unwittingly by child porn Websites for billing purposes. This has Adult Sites Against Child Pornography and its founder concerned that such a report might potentially affect a current investigation in which the founder and his own Web company are cooperating with law enforcement.
The piece was believed likely to run on Los Angeles's Fox News affiliate's nighttime news report November 24.
"It appears they're doing a piece covering the topic of child porn, the Internet and search engines," said Alec Helmy of Helmy Enterprises to AVN.com "But we're not sure what will be reported. They may also cover affiliate programs and how established programs could be utilized by child porn operators to bill their customers."
Helmy said the child porn investigation in question began when he learned, by way of an ASACP report, that an affiliate to his own Web operation had been dealing in child porn. That prompted Helmy and his staff to check out the site and report it immediately to law enforcement, which continues to investigate.
"It's ironic that this situation would come about to the very company that founded ASACP," Helmy said. But Helmy also said his company has handled this situation more readily than a smaller program could have. "If this would have happened to another program with absolutely no history of actively supporting the fight against hild pornography," he said, "all of a sudden it turns into a much more dangerous situation."
Read the full story
A television news report on child pornography may include information on howadult Internet affiliate programs are being used unwittingly by child porn Websites for billing purposes. This has Adult Sites Against Child Pornography and its founder concerned that such a report might potentially affect a current investigation in which the founder and his own Web company are cooperating with law enforcement.
The piece was believed likely to run on Los Angeles's Fox News affiliate's nighttime news report November 24.
"It appears they're doing a piece covering the topic of child porn, the Internet and search engines," said Alec Helmy of Helmy Enterprises to AVN.com "But we're not sure what will be reported. They may also cover affiliate programs and how established programs could be utilized by child porn operators to bill their customers."
Helmy said the child porn investigation in question began when he learned, by way of an ASACP report, that an affiliate to his own Web operation had been dealing in child porn. That prompted Helmy and his staff to check out the site and report it immediately to law enforcement, which continues to investigate.
"It's ironic that this situation would come about to the very company that founded ASACP," Helmy said. But Helmy also said his company has handled this situation more readily than a smaller program could have. "If this would have happened to another program with absolutely no history of actively supporting the fight against hild pornography," he said, "all of a sudden it turns into a much more dangerous situation."
Read the full story
Porn In The U.S.A.
Selling sex is one of the oldest businesses in the world, and right now, business has never been better. One of the biggest cultural changes in the United States over the past 25 years has been the widespread acceptance of sexuality explicit material - pornography. In the space of a generation, a product that once was available in the back alleys of big cities has gone corporate, delivered now directly into homes and hotel rooms by some of the biggest companies in the U.S. It is estimated that Americans now spend somewhere around $10 billion a year on adult entertainment, which is as much as they spend attending professional sporting events, buying music or going out to the movies.
Consumer demand is so strong that it has seduced some of America's biggest brand names, and companies like General Motors, Marriott and Time Warner are now making millions selling erotica to America. Correspondent Steve Kroft reports.
The best place to see it is at the industry's annual convention in Las Vegas, where more than 200 adult entertainment companies gather under one roof to network, schmooze and show off their latest wares.
Presiding over it all is Paul Fishbein, the founder and president of adult video news, the industry's trade publication, which sponsors the expo.
Read the full story
Selling sex is one of the oldest businesses in the world, and right now, business has never been better. One of the biggest cultural changes in the United States over the past 25 years has been the widespread acceptance of sexuality explicit material - pornography. In the space of a generation, a product that once was available in the back alleys of big cities has gone corporate, delivered now directly into homes and hotel rooms by some of the biggest companies in the U.S. It is estimated that Americans now spend somewhere around $10 billion a year on adult entertainment, which is as much as they spend attending professional sporting events, buying music or going out to the movies.
Consumer demand is so strong that it has seduced some of America's biggest brand names, and companies like General Motors, Marriott and Time Warner are now making millions selling erotica to America. Correspondent Steve Kroft reports.
The best place to see it is at the industry's annual convention in Las Vegas, where more than 200 adult entertainment companies gather under one roof to network, schmooze and show off their latest wares.
Presiding over it all is Paul Fishbein, the founder and president of adult video news, the industry's trade publication, which sponsors the expo.
Read the full story
Erotica to disappear from Dutch TV
Following the lead of commercial television broadcaster SBS, competitor RTL 5 will also abandon its "erotica" programmes, signalling the end to the soft porn era on Dutch free-to-air TV.
Programme manager Jaap Hofman said RTL will finish its current series of Sex Court, Latin Lover and Van Lichte Zeden (Of Easy Morals), but will not purchase the rights to new sex material.
He said the station still has enough erotica on the bottom shelf to continue broadcasting for a short while next year, but when the current supply has been used, its soft porn broadcasts will officially come to an end.
"Sex on TV has had its best days. We just don't need it anymore," Hofman said.
The move represents an end to almost 20 years of soft porn on Dutch TV. Viewers in the Netherlands have for years en masse watched programmes such as Pin Up Club, Seks voor de Büch, Adult tv, De Wallen op Stap, 7 lives exposed, Vegas Nights, Webcam Girls, Erotic Dreams and Hollywood Sex.
Read the full story
Following the lead of commercial television broadcaster SBS, competitor RTL 5 will also abandon its "erotica" programmes, signalling the end to the soft porn era on Dutch free-to-air TV.
Programme manager Jaap Hofman said RTL will finish its current series of Sex Court, Latin Lover and Van Lichte Zeden (Of Easy Morals), but will not purchase the rights to new sex material.
He said the station still has enough erotica on the bottom shelf to continue broadcasting for a short while next year, but when the current supply has been used, its soft porn broadcasts will officially come to an end.
"Sex on TV has had its best days. We just don't need it anymore," Hofman said.
The move represents an end to almost 20 years of soft porn on Dutch TV. Viewers in the Netherlands have for years en masse watched programmes such as Pin Up Club, Seks voor de Büch, Adult tv, De Wallen op Stap, 7 lives exposed, Vegas Nights, Webcam Girls, Erotic Dreams and Hollywood Sex.
Read the full story
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Cross Town Traffic
When dealing with your traffic management, apart from a few straightforward rules or 'guidelines' about how to best reference your site, the rest depends on you! Sounds scary doesn't it? When it comes to traffic, you are the master of your universe. Ok, so it obviously helps if you've got a stack of dollar bills the height of Sears tower to work with, but as John Claude Van Damn would say, it's all about being "aware".
When you hear about some traffic for sale that interests you, make sure you do a test run with a sample. And I don't mean that the guy sends you 50 email addresses if you're about to buy 1 million. Any honest partner will give you at least a sample of 100 or 200k if you're about to buy 1 million addresses. Getting these samples for free will depend on whether you can convince the guy that you're interested in developing a "strategic partnership" with his company. In simpler terms this means that if the first batch converts well, and if he has more on sale later on, then you'd be more than happy to continue buying. Or reversibly, if ever you have traffic to sell, which you think may interest him, then you'd be happy to make him a nice deal. If he thinks the partnership with you is going to be a good investment for him, then there should be no problem in getting the sample for free.
Read the full story
When dealing with your traffic management, apart from a few straightforward rules or 'guidelines' about how to best reference your site, the rest depends on you! Sounds scary doesn't it? When it comes to traffic, you are the master of your universe. Ok, so it obviously helps if you've got a stack of dollar bills the height of Sears tower to work with, but as John Claude Van Damn would say, it's all about being "aware".
When you hear about some traffic for sale that interests you, make sure you do a test run with a sample. And I don't mean that the guy sends you 50 email addresses if you're about to buy 1 million. Any honest partner will give you at least a sample of 100 or 200k if you're about to buy 1 million addresses. Getting these samples for free will depend on whether you can convince the guy that you're interested in developing a "strategic partnership" with his company. In simpler terms this means that if the first batch converts well, and if he has more on sale later on, then you'd be more than happy to continue buying. Or reversibly, if ever you have traffic to sell, which you think may interest him, then you'd be happy to make him a nice deal. If he thinks the partnership with you is going to be a good investment for him, then there should be no problem in getting the sample for free.
Read the full story
ADULT INDUSTRY UPDATE
Insiders recently revealed that President George W. Bush has tapped some of the adult industry's sworn enemies for potential appointment as the nation's "Porn Czar." The prime suspect is Bruce A. Taylor, an infamous censor and President of the National Law Center for Children and Families, ("NLC"). Others under consideration are Patrick Truman of the American Family Association and J. Robert Flores, also with the NLC.
These potential appointments should come as no surprise, as Bush took an aggressive stance against erotica during his campaign, saying, "Porn has no place in a decent society." One source predicts that thirty or more companies will be targeted by the Justice Department in the short term. There is also widespread speculation that the content depicted in modern adult films will change, in reaction to the potential appointments. On the list of endangered scenes are food used as sex objects, urination, coffins, blindfolds, interracial and, of course, "the money shot." Not all industry participants are ducking for cover, however. Rob Black of Extreme Associates was recently quoted as saying, "I'm not going to hide in the closed. I'm not going to stop anything."
Read the full story
Insiders recently revealed that President George W. Bush has tapped some of the adult industry's sworn enemies for potential appointment as the nation's "Porn Czar." The prime suspect is Bruce A. Taylor, an infamous censor and President of the National Law Center for Children and Families, ("NLC"). Others under consideration are Patrick Truman of the American Family Association and J. Robert Flores, also with the NLC.
These potential appointments should come as no surprise, as Bush took an aggressive stance against erotica during his campaign, saying, "Porn has no place in a decent society." One source predicts that thirty or more companies will be targeted by the Justice Department in the short term. There is also widespread speculation that the content depicted in modern adult films will change, in reaction to the potential appointments. On the list of endangered scenes are food used as sex objects, urination, coffins, blindfolds, interracial and, of course, "the money shot." Not all industry participants are ducking for cover, however. Rob Black of Extreme Associates was recently quoted as saying, "I'm not going to hide in the closed. I'm not going to stop anything."
Read the full story
Monday, November 24, 2003
Porn: Gen Y's New Black?
Porn is the New Black is an X-rated music video, and editor John d'Addario says it's the official theme song for Fleshbot, the sex-eccentric blog he launched last week. Part of the Gawker Media family of Weblogs, it got 10 times more traffic in its first week than any previous Gawker title, according to publisher Nick Denton.
For a certain young, urban segment (catnip to fashion and beverage marketers) porn is as chic, and as integral to the lifestyle, as iPods and camera phones. The Web's where they find it.
A recent comScore Media Metrix study found U.S. males in the juicy 18 to 35 age group spend 17 percent more time online than the general population. 'Younger adults are used to getting all their information online -- not just porn,' says d'Addario. "When they think of getting any kind of information, the first thing they think of is heading to the Web."
The Web is just a better medium for risque content, says Steve Outing, senior editor for the Poynter Institute. 'How can the print version of Penthouse or Screw compete against something where you can have on-demand video?' he asks.
Read the full story
Porn is the New Black is an X-rated music video, and editor John d'Addario says it's the official theme song for Fleshbot, the sex-eccentric blog he launched last week. Part of the Gawker Media family of Weblogs, it got 10 times more traffic in its first week than any previous Gawker title, according to publisher Nick Denton.
For a certain young, urban segment (catnip to fashion and beverage marketers) porn is as chic, and as integral to the lifestyle, as iPods and camera phones. The Web's where they find it.
A recent comScore Media Metrix study found U.S. males in the juicy 18 to 35 age group spend 17 percent more time online than the general population. 'Younger adults are used to getting all their information online -- not just porn,' says d'Addario. "When they think of getting any kind of information, the first thing they think of is heading to the Web."
The Web is just a better medium for risque content, says Steve Outing, senior editor for the Poynter Institute. 'How can the print version of Penthouse or Screw compete against something where you can have on-demand video?' he asks.
Read the full story
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