Because of its proximity in the alphabet to the Vibe Awards, last night's XBiz Video launch party was an event I approached with trepidation. Like last year's XBiz Awards, however, the shindig was characterized by a low body count and attention to snacks.XBiz has been hiring lately, and several new staffers were on hand, both reporters and personnel whose job descriptions remained nebulous throughout the evening. That's how I like my XBiz. In addition, the company's hard-charging editorial staff were working the room. "That's Wayne Hentai," one whispered to the other, referring to my attorney.
A paparazzo took a picture of Alec Helmy with the original Roy Karch and the original Sunny Lane, who was apparently having trouble keeping her head on.
In the same way that I wondered why there is a need - from a consumer/attendee standpoint - for more adult award shows and more conventions, it isn't readily apparent why the business needs another trade magazine.
That is unless one notes industry dissatisfaction with AVN mixed with the fact that people still buy $4,000 ads in AVN, instant buyer's remorse setting in with each penstroke on a checkstub.
"What does an AVN ad really get me?" one company owner asked last night.
Maybe nothing but the ability to say you can afford an AVN ad. XBiz ads are cheaper.
It would be unfair to characterize XBiz Video as Not-AVN, but it is unavoidable in an industry where launching a trade magazine immediately makes your publication the second-biggest. There were many people at the party who already or will run ads in both magazines.
"I trust XBiz more," another company representative said. "But that might be because they haven't been around as long for anything (bad) to bubble to the top."
Are porn people cynical because of the industry's heartbreaking business practices or because cynical people gravitate to porn?
"In the music industry you're more surprised when people lie," said publicist and former AVN.com editor Scott Ross. "In porn at least you know you're going to get fucked over."
So how is XBiz a different porn animal?
Judging from the party and the copies of the publication circulating, XBiz is both different and familiar.
The event was held at a club called clear (like jessica drake, except a building). clear is a low-lit, blue-tinged, concrete-floored club in Studio City that was rented out for the occasion. There might have been 300 people there altogether, mostly industry business people and a few talent, like Sunny Lane, Linda Roberts, and Pamela Peaks, who lives nearby. People who wanted to sit down could. There was a heated hors d'ouevres table, which is important to me. It was comfortable.
In many ways the face of the Webstar Marketing (XBiz' parent company) empire is its marketing and sales department, behind-the-scenes consultants as well as Kristen Kaye and her new colleague, Su. As opposed to AVN, which has an editorial personality defined by the likes of Mark Kernes, Mike Ramone, Peter Warren, and Heidi Pike-Johnson, XBiz' editorial staff are more background players.
This for me is XBiz' strength and weakness. In most other industries, of course, it would only be a strength. You're not supposed to know the writers of a trade magazine; the writing is usually transparent. XBiz accomplishes this, speaking with a much more newsy voice than AVN's (to use Tod-Hunter's description) "train wreck" editorial style mixed with the personal dramas and insider vendettas that make the older magazine a much more fun read than XBiz.
I snapped a picture of Hustler's new marketing lady Amy Accardi, Memoirs of a Modern-Day Geisha director Jennifer James, and performer Pamela Peaks. Why? Alliteration.XBiz' design also aims higher than AVN's manic-depressive, try-to-please-everybody-but-fail style. Both XBizWorld and XBizVideo are laid out like Variety ("Really?" asked XBiz owner Alec Helmy when I mentioned this several months ago, displaying an eerily-Fishbein-like non-stick coating) and arrive in a manner that is easy to read and not so overburdened with ads that the magazine can't be rolled up and carried around, you know, like something with actual news printed in it.
Might this change as the industry chooses to hedge its bets and advertise in both publications, or as people take advantage of XBiz' currently-lower ad rates? Might the editorial staff become, similar to AVN, power brokers? (This is not the guiding principle of all of AVN's staff, but by virtue of its status as the 800-lb. gorilla of the business, even the meekest, least-powermad staffer gets a dinner here and there.) What might success do to XBiz?
Luke Ford was taking pictures outside at a makeshift photo stand. "More cleavage," he kept saying. It's happening already.
As George Bailey said in It's A Wonderful Life, "This town needs this broken down, measly one-horse institution if for no other reason than to have a place where people don't have to go crawling to Potter."
XBiz is not as measly as AVN is like Potter, but a little competition from the Savings & Loan couldn't hurt.
Previously: XBiz announces long-expected party
See also: XBizVideo
posted by Gram the Man
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Friday, April 07, 2006 
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