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Labels: "paul thomas", avn, britney spears, business, celebrities, monique alexander, paul fishbein, steve hirsch, vivid

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Q. Since you are integral to the success of these companies, Grams, what do these changes mean for you?
A. Thanks for asking. There is a chance that, after the Pirates 2 review Joanne and I write for XBiz this month, our review column in XBiz Premiere will go away, because the company will then have to pay two people as freelancers rather than one. Then, if I become publisher of AVN, I would no longer be able to write for XBiz because, like Rush's "New World Man," both companies desire to keep their nature pure.

I have some bad news. Here's the heart of it: we are cutting 19 of our
133 editorial positions and suspending bonus payments at the start of
next year. With the savings, we are increasing base pay and hiring 10
new people on the most commercially successful Gawker sites. But I
know that's scant consolation for the colleagues we're losing and for
those of you who have been enjoying the bonus windfalls from breakout
stories.

You can guess the reason for these brutal measures: the recession.
Sure, the company is currently profitable and advertising sales are up
by about 30% on their level of a year ago. Our biggest clients are
consumer electronics and entertainment companies that are relatively
well insulated. And, yes, this is not the first time I've predicted
doom: in July 2006, when we "battened down the hatches" and closed
down Sploid and Screenhead; and in April this year, when we spun off
Idolator, Gridskipper and Wonkette.

But now the credit crisis is clearly going to affect every sector of
the economy. Advertising buys typically plunge after the Christmas
shopping season, and 2009 is obviously going to be exceptionally
difficult. We have to prepare for the worst, now, rather than when the
worst comes upon us.

We never used to talk about the business side of the operation.
Traffic was the only concern; my belief was that juicy news would draw
the readers and the advertising would take care of itself. We were
patient; even if it took four years for a site to develop the audience
that finally registered with advertisers, we had the time. No longer.

Sites such as Consumerist, whose success has been measured more in
traffic and recognition than in revenue, now need to cover their
costs. I can't underline enough that this harsh commercial judgment is
no reflection whatsoever on the editorial teams that are being cut.

Each of these sites performs a vital function. Consumerist provides an
outlet for disgruntled consumers that exists nowhere else on the web;
Valleywag has given puffed-up Silicon Valley the prick it's long
needed; and Fleshbot manages to be classy and filthy at the same time.
The site leads and writers on all of our sites have done exactly what
we asked them to: work harder than the competition and grow the
audience. It's my commercial judgment that's been at fault.

One reason we're eliminating these positions is to reinforce the teams
on the sites with the most commercial appeal—Gizmodo, Kotaku,
Lifehacker and Gawker—and the properties such as Jezebel, io9,
Deadspin and Jalopnik which are poised to join them.

One new recruit we're confirming today is Gabriel Snyder from W
Magazine in Los Angeles who, as managing editor of Gawker.com, will
continue the site's evolution into a national news and entertainment
site. We are also hiring new contributors at Jezebel, Deadspin, Kotaku
and io9.

Even in the growing editorial teams we need to control costs. And that
means a new look at traffic bonuses. We've been spending $50,000 a
month on average on pageview bonuses. The scheme has made writers
hustle for traffic even in teams so large that there was a risk they
become lumbering. It's helped us hit a record 274m pageviews last
month, up 69% on last September.

Pageview bonuses will continue this quarter. And we are committed to
pageview incentives, and to measuring performance by a writer's
individual pageviews, in the long term. But a first quarter spike in
traffic -- and the resulting bonus payments -- could be dangerous if
advertising markets are troubled next year. And we're assuming that
the economy is so volatile that most of you would like a little bit
more predictability about your own income.

That's why we're suspending the pageview bonus for the first quarter
at least, but making up for some of the loss of income by raising pay.
If you haven't recently agreed to a new rate, your monthly base amount
will automatically be increased by 5% in January.

The news about the job and bonus cuts will be demoralizing. The golden
age of the blog is over, people will say. Gawker Media is behaving
like those big media companies that we mock so easily. I could come up
with some bullshit line about how much worse it would have been to
wait until we were forced to control costs; or how much more
unpleasant life will be at the many internet ventures and newspapers
that won't make it through the downturn. I could give you my
optimistic spin about the glorious future that awaits us on the far
side of this downturn.

But there is no escaping the fact that we're losing some excellent
colleagues and the environment next year will be bleak. The one
consolation is that there will be plenty of news for us to break —
starting with this email, which you are free to leak.

Labels: avn, commentary, Digital Playground, hustler, joanne cachapero, trademags, xbiz

Ms Jasmin St Claire allows butane gas to be pumped via PVC into her colon and set afire on expulsion, resulting in a 3.5-foot anal blowtorch for Cream Productions' 1998 Blow it Out Your Ass.'

Labels: avn, david foster wallace, obituaries, writers

But in Palahniuk’s novel titled “Snuff,” fiction, it seems, is stranger and, apparently, a whole lot better than truth. Such is the basic fact - that most of what Palahniuk writes about here, bears little resemblance to what you’d come across in the real porn world.

If that’s the case, why should we quibble about minor details getting in the way of a good story, you might ask? Well, for Doubleday to cash in on a really bad, tedious book with Palahniuk’s name attached to it, for one thing. Although I've yet to come across a review that hasn't gone out of its way to kiss Palahniuk's ass which was one of my reasons, aside from the obvious, for grabbing a copy to begin with.

Or put it this way. If some Joe Blow nobody had submitted this idea, the publishing company would have been firing off rejection slips faster than premature ejaculation.

Labels: avn, avn08, awards, dave navarro, events, greg fitzsimmons, jenna jameson, kirsten price, las vegas, max hardcore, sasha grey, teagan presley, tera patrick

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“Throw in super hardcore ass fucking, d.p.s [sic], triple penetrations, and in Audrey (Hollander)’s case, so many penetrations at the same time that I lost count (emphasis added), leading up to the massive felchings, and wrap it all up in a hardcore BDSM package, with real fetishy sex, clothes and sets (including a seedy, graffiti and glory hole-ridden bathroom stall and a sleazy old school dirty book store), and Cum Fart Tsunami should be a cum farting fan’s ultimate wet dream," raved Ramone. "Raincoats will not be optional.”

Labels: audrey hollander, avn, commentary, directors

Twenty female models were just added today at www.lorilustagency.com . Craig Stevens stated “there will be another ten more girls added next week, we’re growing like a weed”. But what is amazing is almost every model is new and has never shot before, and many are under 22 years of age.

Labels: agency, avn, lori lust, new talent, sic

GP: Did anyone come to help you get in a penis mold state of mind?

TG: My girlfriend Ashlynn Brooke (pictured) couldn't be there although she wanted to very much, so I had to take matters into my own hands, pardon the pun.

GP: How degrading! It's like you suddenly became a porn fan.

TG: Getting the cast done was very interesting....not what I expected...there were three people needed during the process; one to mix the cast material, one to fit the tube-style mold over me, and another one to pour the mixture. I had to be hard for the time while the mold material was setting up which was about three minutes, which is a long time without any stimulation, but I did it.

GP: Congratulations.

TG: They took three casts, each of which they concentrated on a specifc part of my unit. Then they will put all three casts together to achieve the finished piece.

GP: That is a very Catholic way of putting it.

Gunn has a deal with Topco to develop a line of Gunn-branded products, including the results of the cast, which will be released this spring.

Previously: Operation Desert Stormy party art; Stood Up: Is it good for the Jews?; Erotica L.A. 2007 in review; O: The Power of Submission
See also: Tommy Gunn, Topco Sales

Labels: Ashlynn Brooke, avn, awards, interviews, marital aids, Tommy Gunn

But buying awards is an inexact science, and what is successful for one potential winner might not be for another. So I have no advice other than that Superbowl tickets are a great stocking stuffer for people of any faith, and blowjobs are pleasant all year long.


But let's talk about consumer taste. By 1984, when the AVN Awards were announced on paper, "commercial" porn had been around for decades, but it was still illegal in many places and delivery systems like video were not widespread. 1984's 18 categories reflected no fetishes like Asian, MILF, POV, Latina, Interracial, Anime, or Transsexual; those have evolved from availability and saturation (of the market, not necessarily Squirting).


This year's nominations are the most comprehensive in AVN's history, and at no time in the company's 24 years has the list of nominations shrunk from one year to the next.

With the weight of a quarter-century, the nominations have no choice but to get post-modern: awards for marketing movies and performers have increased to nine, the Crossover Star award has been renamed in honor of Jenna Jameson, and companies that make "classic"-style porn or that re-release ancient porn catalogs also have their own category.

This is the second year of the Unsung Starlet and Contract Performer award, which reflect both the hardest and least used talent in the business who haven't

been honored in Best Actress or Best New Starlet categories.


At the 2008 AVN Awards on January 12, most of the 120 citations will not be presented on stage; a video screen will flash the winners in between more significant awards. Last year's presentation, which was the first awards held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and also the first awards for which regular consumers were encouraged to buy tickets, was also the slickest; still, by awards show standards, the AVN's are a train wreck.


And I like it that way. Long-time attendees will happily claim "but it's our train wreck", meaning that a shambling free-for-all filled with technical glitches, bombast, people playing dress-up, preening, and unintentional humor are a celebration of what Porn Valley is like every day.

If an outside company comes in to "handle" the awards, as might be the logical evolution of porn's mainstreaming, the January adult industry reunion will lose something, even as it gains a larger audience.

I predict the adult industry can sustain a 200-category awards show before things fall apart, but I better make some money off of it.

Previously: AVN 2007 wrap-up; AVN 2006
See also: AVN Awards

Labels: "joanna angel", ange venus, avn, awards, commentary, events, heather vandeven, mary carey, max hardcore, sophia santi

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For people who don't know porn stars, who wonder about their habits and gathering places (but who don't want to know an uncomfortable amount about those things), this is the book to own.

The title is misleading in that not too many people are naked, and "ambitious" is not the most apt adjective for a lot of folks in the book, but the "R-rated look at an X-rated industry" is spot on: there are no graphic tales of gaping or semen sharing, gangbangs gone bad, drug or sexual abuse, or suicide, but plenty of the paragraphs that accompany the photos of porn stars are chirpy pieces of personal philosophy.

"Naked Ambition" is a Porn Stars Are People Too book.


Grecco told his subjects to come as they were. "They came right off the floor (that way)," he said, his team having set up areas backstage at the awards and off the show floor during the convention.

So while Grecco did the lighting and framing and provided the backdrops, the porn stars look as they wanted you to see them and, when photographer and subject work in concert, the effect is a porn star who says something.

Thus, Penny Flame walks offstage with a torn award envelope, having flubbed a line during her presentation. Carmen Hart catches an air-grape, Kirsten Price laughs out loud, and Dana DeArmond gets shut out. We get the feeling we know something.

But many of the photos don't say too much. The reader is left with the same sexy/innocuous poses (except clothed this time) as on porn boxcovers. In these cases the performers seem interchangeable. This is, of course, the difference between stars and everyone else.

As a document, "Naked Ambition" is valuable; two years can see a lot of changes, especially in a business with such a high turnover. Thus there's Missy Monroe before her pregnancy, Tina Tyler in a brief punk period, and Jenna Jameson at the beginning of her current incarnation.

Grecco devotes an appropriate amount of space to fringe elements of the porn industry (like clowns, midgets, Michelle Aston, and the aged), but to his credit, everyone gets the same treatment. His coverage of the gay side has fewer notes in it, like fashion photography that is less porny than the rest of the book, but again, Grecco says he treated the subjects like a beat reporter.

My favorite photos are ones that appear to be in the middle ground between staged and casual. Among these are portraits of Lexington Steele, Cousin Stevie, Charlotte Stokely, and Yasmin Taylor.

"The idea of the book is that it is a journalistic document using the portrait photography and still photography," Grecco said. And to a degree, letting the subjects do the work lets the photographer off the hook, but he's still the guy framing the shot.

So if you come away from "Naked Ambition" with the feeling that there are only a few people in the porn business worthy of being called "stars", you know they feel that way, too.

Previously: Mary Carey hosts a happening, Art on his sleeve
See also: Michael Grecco, Naked Ambition

Labels: art, avn, fotos, WGL

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