Rise and fall of the Porn Barons

[TheEnforcer]

An interesting, if extremely limited, article on the big boys of the magazine and such world and how the digital age has effected them. Very short piece that clearly has issues but may be interesting and start a decent discussion.

Click link for full article.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2337f912-83f...nclick_check=1

Rise and fall of the pornography barons
By Luke Johnson

Published: September 16 2008 18:58 | Last updated: September 16 2008 18:58

These are the twilight years of a curious late-20th-century business phenomenon: the porn barons. These buccaneers built corporate empires that could never be really legitimate: there was the perennial issue of moral turpitude. Yet margins and cash flow were prodigious – because demand was immense, costs were modest, pricing was elastic, competition was limited – and, after all, vice usually pays.

The pornography industry sprang up on the back of the permissive culture of the 1960s. It boomed into the 1970s, spreading from saucy magazines into new product areas such as videos and sex shops. But in recent years the incorporation of raunch culture into the mainstream and the encroachment of the internet have seriously undermined the old-style porn kingdoms.

[CharlieBrown]

haha, nice avatar. i love rodents.

kinda off topic, but ah well :>

[RawAlex]

Couldn't be bothered to sign up to read the rest, but safe to say that the porn business didn't disappear, just the delivery methods shifted. The magazines got double dumped by VHS / DVD and then the net. It took a long, long time for them to die their horrible deaths (and in the case of some magazines, repeated deaths)

[Paul Markham]

A lot of the porn barons put their money into property and other investments that soon dwarfed the porn earnings. Well the bright ones did, some of the other ones are suffering.

[EmporerEJ]

Luke is back.......well, not really Luke. But you get the idea...

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Couldn't be bothered to sign up to read the rest, but safe to say that the porn business didn't disappear, just the delivery methods shifted. The magazines got double dumped by VHS / DVD and then the net. It took a long, long time for them to die their horrible deaths (and in the case of some magazines, repeated deaths)

You really need to get out more.
The magazines aren't dead yet.
It's not a "zero sum" game.

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by EmporerEJ

You really need to get out more.
The magazines aren't dead yet.
It's not a "zero sum" game.

Not dead, but like online porn these days, the mainstream guys are all but toast, and the ones making the money are off in niches and the cult of personality on pornstars. Playboy and Penthouse are marginal players where they were once the dominate titles on the news stands, their market stripped away by harder and more focused porn stuff on one side, and the more socially acceptable (read them in public places) mags like FHM, Maxim, and so on.


In the mainstream:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/bu...rssnyt&emc=rss

Magazine sales overall off over 6% again this year, and have 8.2% less ad pages in them.

[Hell Puppy]

I dont register to read things.

[boobbucks]

Makes me think of that movie Boogie Nights a bit. Roller Girl...mmmm....

[softball]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

I dont register to read things.

me too

[Hell Puppy]

Unless someone posts full text, I'll never see it, but here's my general feeling...

Porn has always transitioned with technology. Whenever it happens, you either adapt or die.

We had loops, then we had the golden age of porn cinema. And the cinema guys screamed like raped apes at the advent of video. They screamed that these total non professionals could shoot any old crap and it was eating into their business. Sound familiar?

Now it goes one step further, anyone can shoot porn AND distribute it to the entire world very easily. Simultaneously print media is becoming increasingly less relevant.

Adapt or die.