Boring Porn Pinup Site Loses Funding

Back in March 2008, porn pinup site Zivity made headlines after securing a cool $8 million in funding. Now it's making headlines again: this time, because much of its funding (and staff) is walking away. More »

Sweetheart Video Signs Elexis Monroe As First Contract Star

Those porn studios grow up so fast, don't they? It seems like only yesterday that Sweetheart Video was launching their line of all girl smut—and now they're all grown up and signing contract stars! More »

"Female Porn Executive" Joy King Wants You To "Get Into Porn"

Recession got you down? Is your laid off lifestyle preventing you from getting the lovin' you want and need? Well, Joy King has got the solution to all your problems: just get into porn! More »

The Kink.com Layoffs, Or What We Mean By "Recession-Proof" Porn

We're still reeling from the news of the recent layoffs at fetish powerhouse Kink.com—but we've received information on the situation that's provided insight on what happened at Kink (and what could happen around the industry). More »

Say It Ain't So! Layoffs At Kink.com

It seems that Naughty America isn't the only one getting slammed by economic woes: we've just learned that fetish porn powerhouse Kink.com has laid off fifteen percent of its staff. More »

More Rumored Layoffs At Naughty America

Then again... while some might make it through the treacherous economy into a brighter future of adult entertainment, others are more likely to die trying: we've just heard word of more layoffs at Naughty America. More »

The Future Of Adult Entertainment: How To Sell The Cow And Give Away The Milk For Free

What with all the piracy and tube sites and the flailing economy, it can be easy to see why adult entertainment companies might be a tiny bit worried about their future. More »

They Make Porn In Toronto?

Look out, LA—Toronto's comin' at ya! The Canadian city's burgeoning adult industry is on its way to the big leagues (and with homegrown girls like these, they have a bit of an advantage.). (torontosun.com, thumbnail)

You Can't Keep Good Smut Down

Larry Flynt may have failed in his plea for a porn bailout, but pornographers aren't deterred: Pimproll has established the creatively named PornBailout.com to ease the financial pain of the adult industry. More »

I'll Take A Double Espresso With An Extra Dollop Of Nudity

The city planning board of Vassalboro, Maine just gave a unanimous go-ahead to Donald Crabtree's genius idea of a topless coffee shop. More »

Rumored Layoffs At Naughty America

We've all heard how porn is recession proof, how porn companies are posting record profits while the rest of the world lays off half their staff. But is that really the truth? More »

She's On Top: Women Taking Charge Of The Jizz Biz

Despite claims that porn is, to quote James Brown, a man's man's man's world, a recent MSNBC piece reveals that there are, in fact, women in porn—and not just in front of the camera, either. Women like Joy King, Samantha Lewis, and Susan Colvin are all superstars in the porn business (with the emphasis on business). So much for that sausage party. (msnbc.com, via hotmoviesforher.com)

$8 million dollar porn cheesecake site Zivity just laid off a third of its staff... and for some reason, the tech media actually cares. Over here at Fleshbot HQ, we won't be worrying too much about their staffing situation until they start producing actual porn. (techcrunch.com + cnet.com)

You know the economy is in trouble when even porn is taking a hit: Playboy Enterprises has just announced a major restructuring, with 80 jobs cut and DVD operations to be completely shut down. Won't somebody please think of the Bunnies? (avn.com)

Hey, look it's another "the porn industry is dying because of the internet, amateurs giving it away for free, and oh, yeah the entire economy is in the tank right now so maybe it has something to do with that" stories. But this one is in Financial Times (and includes a guest appearance by Monique Alexander) so now you know it's serious. (ft.com)

The media may continue to debate whether topless sunbathing is still in fashion or not, but given that some Las Vegas hotels are having no trouble finding customers willing to pay to watch topless strippers lounge by the pool it looks like there are some places where it will never go out of style. You just can't argue with that kind of economic evidence. (reuters.com)

We know those Pacific Northwesterners love their coffee and their nude girls (ideally at the same time), but we're sort of surprised to see that even NPR has taken an interest in the ongoing battle of the people vs. Espresso Gone Wild. Isn't there an election or something that they should be covering? (npr.com)

Celebrity Sex Tapes 101

Do you ever wonder how those amateur celebrity sex tapes go from rumor to back door deal to shady paysites to your computer? Or why some videos become money-making blockbusters, while other never make it past step one? The L.A. Times investigates this sexual black market and the answers may surprise you. Or not. (latimes.com)

Adult Entertainment Capital Helps Expand More Than Just Your Savings

In these uncertain economic times, you want to make sure the money you invest is going into something that will tolerate the vicissitudes of the market—to say nothing about possible dividends that include complimentary lap dances and dirty cellphone video downloads. Which is why the newly launched Adult Entertainment Capital is offering horned-up savvy investors the opportunity to buy into "progressive adult oriented companies across all stages of the business cycle" as well as a means of securing venture capital for that awesome laser-powered self-lubricating dildo company you've been hoping to launch. (Oops, we just gave away our secret retirement plan!) Too soon to tell whether Wall Street will take notice of the AIC's forthcoming publicly traded stock, but it does promise to make watching that MSNBC ticker crawl more interesting. More »

PornClubCard: It's Where You Want To Be

MasterCard, Visa, American Express, PornClubCard: only one of these will earn you points that can be redeemed for 30-day porn site memberships. Although, classy as it looks, you probably wouldn't want to expense that business dinner on it. (xbiz.com)

The sexy coffee craze in the Pacific Northwest has apparently gotten out of hand as "Espresso Gone Wild" is being told to cover up or shut down. (Personally, we think they should be fined for the name.) Won't someone please think of the children health code violations? (azcentral.com)

The good news: The Chippendales have gone from seedy nightclub act to sad touring show to classy Vegas entertainment juggernaut that could be worth close to $150 million. The bad news: They had to do it by keeping the cock and balls hidden. "Family friendly erotic dancing" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it. (chippendales.com + portfolio.com)

The Silicon Alley Insider tallies up a list of the top 20 porn sites accessed on mobile phones and comes up with a few surprises. To them anyway, that is—sites like Brazzers and Reality Kings might not be household names where they're from, but here at Fleshbot Central they're practically our next door neighbors. (Then again, we're probably the ones who accessed those sites enough times to get them on the list to begin with, so they might have a point.) (alleyinsider.com; thumbnail via Wild Dolls)

This Week In Press Releases

While the news may only be of interest to those who run adult website affiliate programs (you know who you are), we couldn't help but be appalled amused by solo site concern IOCash's announcement that they've changed their name to Solo Slut Cash in an attempt to class things up a bit. Despite the name change, we understand the site's backend will remain the same ... only sluttier! (avn.com; thumbnail via Ask Jolene)

What's it like to be the world's second hottest porn star? MediaBlvd investigates with this penetrating feature about the life of Tera Patrick, her husband Evan Seinfeld, and their company Teravision—and the answers may surprise you. (Unless you happen to be Tera Patrick, in which case you know all this stuff already.) (mediablvd.com; thumbnail via terapatrick.com)

The bad news is that the economy is in the tank and we're all broke! So what's the good news? Now everyone is going to stay home and watch nothing but porn! Even recessions have a silver lining! (xbiz.com)

The makers of fake penis-expanding pill Enzyte are thinking about maybe making some minor "changes" to the business, since you know ... all their top executives, the company founder (and his mother) were convicted of bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges and admitted in federal court that their product is a complete fairy tale. You would think those are the kind of setbacks that would put a company out of business, but that's the American entrepreneurial spirit for you! (avn.com)

Trista Lace didn't just handle the payroll and accounting for Red Light District's feature "Heavy Loads," she was also one of the ... well, heavy loads. How come none of those "how to break in to porn" tutorials ever suggest "learn how to use bookkeeping spreadsheets"? (avn.com + myspace.com))

This New York Times profile was a little too long sophisticated for us to fully comprehend, but it seems to be about a man who built a multi-million dollar empire by figuring out how to charge your credit card for online porn, and who also spends a good deal of time working for the American Bible Association and a (shady, possibly fake) animal rescue organization. (That's him on the left, with one of the world's biggest porn moguls.) He's also bankrupted a few companies and spent some time in jail for mail fraud ... but frankly, what enterprising online porntrepreneur hasn't? (nytimes.com)

Apparently, some people find it a little unusual that Penthouse—which also owns Adult Friend Finder—would own Christian social networking site BigChurch.com. We're all for inclusion and everything, but that is a pretty big church. (telegraph.co.uk)

Porn Recession Will Ruin Us All ... Again

You may not have heard anything about this on the news, but there seems to be something wrong with the "economy." Things are more expensive and our mortgages need more oil or something. Fortunately, we still have porn ... or do we? People don't like to spend money in a recession, but they do really like porn, so if they're not spending money on that then we must really be in trouble. News does travel slowly, but now even Miami knows (thanks to local TV station CBS 4) that porn DVDs aren't doing so hot. They're losing money to the online internets ... except if people are going to the internet, then they're probably still spending money. They're just you know ... spending it somewhere else. Of course, there's the free internet places like YOURporn, which is not to be confused with the actual site that some dude at the office told this reporter to check out. But don't worry—someday porn will all be in 3-D! That will fix everything! Right? More »

The mobile porn market could be worth $5 billion worldwide in five years, yet somehow we still can't figure out how to make Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" our ringtone. That's science for you. (aetoday.com)

When Max Met Abby

An anonymous source just tipped us off with more details about that controversial new Abby Winters website redesign we posted about yesterday: apparently the company is revamping its image in advance of an upcoming collaboration with Max Hardcore later this year. "We see this as an opportunity to extend our brand presence in North America and among audiences, such as Mr. Hardcore's, who might not be familiar with our unique brand of happy, honest, guiltfree erotica," an Abby Winters representative did not say, to which Hardcore added "Yeah, show Daddy your dirty little fuck hole." Tentatively titled "Fiona's Intimate Gaping Adventure", the first DVD in the Abby Winters XXXTreme series will ship later this year. (Yeah, we thought the title could use a little work too.)

Business analysts are taking a closer look at the proposed IPO for Penthouse Media Group. Will your portfolio become engorged with cash or limp and flaccid with premature insolvency? Sorry ... stock talk always gets us hot and bothered. (thestockmasters.com + abcnews.go.com)

Remember that vegan strip club that opened like six weeks ago in Portland? Yeah, it's up for sale on Craigslist already. Serious buyers only, of course, because Craigslist is where serious businessmen go to buy serious businesses. (craigslist, via Gawker, via rivercitykitty.com) More »