SAN FRANCISCO - The ebullient gang at NakedSword is busier than ever, and they're loving every minute of the madcap, fast-paced scramble that is life at the center of a growing gay media empire.
As NakedSword president Tim Valenti is fond of saying, "There's something gay in everything, and we're always looking to find it."
Lately, "finding it" has meant adding to the kingdom in the form of a new consumer-oriented online magazine, TheSword . Launched in January, the publication was barely five months old when it and sister media property, the news-and-gossip-oriented The Tim & Roma Show (a webcast that proudly bills itself as "dish, dirt and drag"), took on International Mr. Leather, Chicago Bear Pride and the Grabby Awards during the same weekend in May. Surprisingly, everyone on the combined staffs lived to tell the tale.
"We kind of embrace the bizarre," noted Matt Slusarenko, NakedSword's public relations manager.
The NakedSword folks also embrace exhaustion, if their Memorial Day weekend schedule was any indication. Between the two media outlets, almost every event during the weekend was covered. Following the whirlwind tour, TheSword editor and Tim & Roma producer Michael Stabile barely remained vertical as he commented, "We're confused as to what day it is and where this inflatable sheep came from, but we do know that we had a great time."
According to Slusarenko, having a great time is all part of the job at NakedSword.
"It's a great place to work, and that bleeds over into everything we do," he said.
That's fortunate, considering the company doesn't plan to rest on its laurels anytime soon. Slusarenko said NakedSword is determined to become "the NBC of porn in the gay community - a complete gay lifestyle and entertainment network. We're doing everything we do so we can have our own voice in the industry. We started with our own little pocket and we'll make it bigger until it's a whole pant leg, and then a trouser, and then...."
The plan is ambitious, but Valenti said it is rooted in reality.
"We've always prided ourselves on our ability to transcend categories and distinguish ourselves among [video-on-demand] providers," he noted. "With the combined power of NakedSword and AEBN , we have the distribution power to help our adult content reach the widest possible audience, but to really make an impact in the community we need to think larger."
While the adult VOD business is booming, Valenti said real growth will require capturing the eyeballs of adult consumers on all platforms in addition to corralling mainstream gay men beyond the world of porn. TheSword is the centerpiece of the strategy, allowing NakedSword to enter the mainstream gay market, but also serving as the lynchpin for the company's increasingly production-oriented activities. NakedSword co-productions like GRUNTS (with Raging Stallion) and Folsom Fear (with TitanMen) have won both GAYVN and Grabby awards. In addition, NakedSword has a "featured cameo" in Another Gay Movie 2, and The Tim & Roma Show recently partnered with here! Network for an episode of the gay soap opera Paradise Falls.
Slusarenko emphasized that of paramount importance to NakedSword and its people is that everything be fun.
"We're always trying to find new ways of looking at the culture and then making a joke about it," he said, implying the same irreverent spirit underlying Comedy Central's mega-hits The Daily Show and The Colbert Report underlies much of NakedSword's philosophy. "We're always looking for ways to get people laughing about the culture and the porn industry while giving them up-close-and-personal access to what goes on behind the scenes."
There is more than irreverence and good-natured lunacy at the core of the concept, though. According to Stabile, porn is a mirror of larger issues in gay society.
"Gay culture can learn a lot from porn culture," he said. "The gay community has been moving more toward marriage and acceptance, but has forgotten about the things that made us great: our unwillingness to accept the status quo and our embrace of a sexually progressive culture. While I'm happy that people have rights, there's a growing dissatisfaction among gays [and a movement] away from what Edith Massey once called ‘the sick and boring life' of heterosexuals, and we want to be at the forefront of [the movement]."
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