LAS VEGAS—"Look at this!" exclaimed Stuart Wall of Smash Pictures as we walked by his booth this morning. "We're featured on the first page of the [Las Vegas] Review-Journal's business section!"
Sure enough, directly under the headline "Ever-evolving changes affecting adult entertainment industry" was a picture of cute Presley Hart posing in the Smash booth, and part of that photo session seems to have been captured on video as well.
To date, the Review-Journal's Laura Carroll has written three stories about the convention, which can be found here, here and here. Today's story dealt mostly with the upcoming legal fight over Los Angeles County's Measure B, which was prominently discussed during Thursday's seminar, ""State of the Industry: Peering and Planning Ahead," moderated by former AVN publisher Paul Fishbein.
In covering the issue, Carroll correctly notes that the controversy isn't just about condoms, but also "other prophylactics on the sets of adult films," and quotes Evil Angel's Christian Mann, Wicked Pictures' Steve Orenstein and LFP President Michael Klein in opposition to the measure.
"My concern is about the domino effect," Mann said. "In that regard, it's very dangerous. And in my opinion, it's a regulation that hugely impacts the way we make movies."
Orenstein agreed with that assessment, recognizing that although Wicked's productions require performers to use condoms, "[h]e said the industry doesn't know how far regulators will take the measure, and the ramifications could be much larger than just condoms," Carroll reported.
And while Klein also agreed, he went a bit further, indicating a willingness to leave Los Angeles if the issue isn't resolved in the industry's favor.
"We'll always find a place to shoot," he said.
Interestingly, Carroll downplayed the widely held idea that if Measure B survives its challenge, the industry might move to Las Vegas. "Hawaii has been the locale mentioned more often than not as a possible refuge, if it comes to that," she claimed.
The remainder of the article talks about both the dangers to the industry of rampant piracy and the need for producers to diversify the platforms on which their content can be seen.
That last concept builds on a point she mentioned in a previous day's article, which was Wicked's diversification last year into personal care products, where she quotes Orenstein explaining, "While movies are getting pirated, you need to create a tangible product that can't be downloaded."
In fact, that article, titled "At adult expo, fans hunt autographs while pros battle piracy," and ironically topped by a photo of Digital Playground's Jesse Jane posing with photographer Chick Hughes, is pretty much all about Wicked, noting the company's commitment to enhancing women's porn experiences as well as men's, and quoting Stormy Daniels on the effect piracy has had on her revenue from her website.
"The second I put something online someone downloads all my content and puts it somewhere else," Daniels said. "I'm this close to saying, 'Screw that' and taking it all down. I've had to reinvent how I'm going to make money."
Diversification was also one of the topics in Carroll's coverage of Wednesday's seminar titled, "The Many Benefits of Multimedia," moderated by AVN Novelty Editor Sherri Shaulis and featuring adult strs Joanna Angel and Dana DeArmond, marketing expert Laura MacEwan and Sportsheets owner Tom Stewart.
"There's no reason to shoot anything and put it just in one place anymore," Carroll quotes BurningAngel founder Joanna Angel as saying. "Don't lock yourself into a formula, because the world is changing."
Carroll also cited Stewart's use of videos to promote and explain his product, and MacEwan's suggestion that companies create "a unique online personality" to help with sales as signs that porn is becoming more commercially innovative.
But perhaps the overall point is, it's nice to see local media treating the adult industry like the business genre it is, rather than seeking out gossip and titillation to report.
