Adult Entertainment Industry Wants Bailout

Sorry, no picture included with this post.

Thanks to Larry from the AA Movement blog for this article on Fox News.  This is yet another angle on the “internet decreasing profitability” stuff that I’ve been posting about the publishing and media industries.  I usually try to summarize, but in this case, the article itself says it best:

Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis and “Hustler” magazine publisher Larry Flynt have said they will petition Congress for financial aid along the lines of what the Big Three auto makers are getting.

This is hilarious.  They know they have no chance of getting anything, but man, what a brilliant publicity stunt.  As Larry says, “Only in America!”

I think the big media conglomerates are in trouble when it comes to making money off of porn.  People have never really cared all that much about porn quality, and so there’s little difference between professional and amateur production.  Plus, from what I understand (because I wouldn’t know myself), it’s an impulse type of thing–one might talk about and anticipate watching “The Dark Knight” in a mainstream theater, but pornographically, people just watch whatever is available at the time.  The internet makes it too easy.  What makes it worse for the industry is that the public has no opinion.  Whereas people might become outraged at pirates downloading the latest Tom Cruise movie, no one cares that porn kings are losing out.

Still, I love the arguments that the industry is putting forth.

With the $5 billion, they would “invest in building new means of distribution, and shoring up our distribution right now to prevent further erosion from factors like Youporn and other Internet content that has seriously affected our business over the past few years,” Francis said in an interview with FOX Business. “We will use the money wisely, and we will create more jobs.”

Francis said that if invited, he and Flynt would drive across the country in a hybrid vehicle to present their plans to Congress.

The press release noted that DVD sales and rentals for the adult industry have decreased by 22% in the past year, partially because people are turning more and more to the Internet for adult content.

“People are too depressed to be sexually active,” Flynt said in the press release. “This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex.”

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