Paid content: let’s be adult about this

For real insight into what the digital revolution has meant – and will mean – for content, advertising and media owners I’d look no further than this article in the LA Times: Tough times in the porn industry

In short it tells us that the adult industry’s profits and revenues are down as consumers turn to the wealth of free content available on the web. As a result, actors, make-up artists, writers and the rest are working harder for less money.

And the reason I’d start here for an understanding of the future of content in an online world is because the porn industry has embraced digital like no other. Out of necessity and inclination it has innovated in search, affiliates, the use of short-form video content, freemium models, user-generated content and everything else that consultants like me tell content owners they should. And yet, they have suffered at the hands of the web even more than most.

There must be variables untold in comparing the adult sector with ‘traditional’ content areas but what’s striking is how it shows that media owners (and the ecosystem that surrounds them) must accept they exist in a world where they will make less money – however much they embrace the digital shift. Well, at least out of content…

Being prepared to pay for anything is a question of scarcity. I recall a Peanuts strip in which one of Charlie Brown’s friends strikes on the brilliant value of screwed up paper as a toy for cats. However, their first door-to-door sales effort falls flat as the potential buyer asks why they couldn’t just screw some paper up themselves. With free content, freely available the question of rethinking what people are prepared to pay for is critical.

Back to the LA Times article and another quote is striking (for reasons other than its subject matter):

‘Adult performers with big followings probably will continue to prosper, since they often work under a guaranteed contract and have loyal fans who buy all their work. Business managers for Belladonna and Tera Patrick, two of the industry’s biggest stars, said their clients were using their celebrity to make money in other ways, like dancing in exotic clubs and licensing their name to sex toys and lingerie.

‘”The economy has forced us to look in other directions such as tangible goods,” said Evan Seinfeld, who co-manages Patrick, his wife, and runs her production company, Teravision.’

This tells us that the power of brands will remain crucial and that – to get even on the loss of money from content – brand extension into the physical world (events, books, whatever) will have to continue.

Last word goes to adult star Savannah Stern who might have been speaking for the entire ‘traditional’ media industry when she says: “I wish I would have never gotten into it. When you get used to a certain lifestyle, it’s really hard to cut back and realize this may not be forever.”