''Adult Video News'' (also called ''AVN'' or ''AVN Magazine'') is an American

trade magazine A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular tradesman, trade or industry. The collective term ...

that covers the adult video industry. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' notes that ''AVN'' is to

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent Human sexual activity, sexually WIKT:explicit, explicit subject matter in order to sexual arousal, arouse, fasci ...

s what ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' is to records. ''AVN'' sponsors an annual convention, called the Adult Entertainment Expo or AEE, in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

along with the

AVN Awards The AVN Awards are List of movie awards, film awards sponsored and presented by the American trade magazine ''AVN (magazine), AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') annually to honor achievements in the global Sex industry, adult entertainment industry. ...

, an award show for the adult industry modeled after the

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

. ''AVN'' rates adult films and tracks news developments in the industry. An ''AVN'' issue can feature over 500 movie reviews. The magazine is about 80% ads and is targeted at adult-video retailers. Author

David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American writer and professor who published novels, short stories, and essays. He is best known for his 1996 novel ''Infinite Jest'', which ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine ...

has described ''AVN'' articles to be more like

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...

s than articles, but he also described the ''AVN'' magazine as "sort of the ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' of the US porn industry."

History

Paul Fishbein, Irv Slifkin, and Barry Rosenblatt founded ''AVN'' in 1983 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. Slifkin left in 1984; having lost interest in reviewing adult movies due to the industry's transition from

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

videos Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) system ...

. Rosenblatt and Fishbein had a falling out in 1987. Eventually, Fishbein moved the magazine to the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

where it operates to this day. Fishbein sold the company in 2010. Theo Sapoutzis became chairman and CEO of AVN. Tony Rios became owner and CEO of AVN in August 2015. ''AVN'' is widely quoted for various figures about the adult industry and its revenues. ''AVN'' estimated that the sales and rentals of adult videos topped four billion dollars in 2000 and 2002. ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' has called this figure "baseless and wildly inflated". When ''Forbes'' asked ''AVN'' how it arrived at this figure, Mike Ramone the managing editor at the time responded, "I don't know the exact methodology ... It's a pie chart." When asked to separate the figures for sales versus rentals, a standard practice among those who cover the video industry, the editor did not think those figures were available.

Adams Media Research Screen Digest Ltd was a company providing business intelligence, research and analysis on the global media markets based in London, United Kingdom, that has grown out of a monthly journal of that name that was founded in 1971. It was acquired by t ...

noted that no one tracked the adult video business with rigor or precision and that the most generous estimate of sales and rentals combined was $1.8 billion. ''AVN'' estimated that adult industry revenue in 2005 was $12.6 billion with $2.5 billion of that coming from the Internet. However,

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

reported that this figure could not be independently verified. According to Michael Goodman of the

Yankee Group Yankee Group was an independent technology research and consulting firm, founded in 1970 by Howard Anderson. The firm "was one of the analyst industry’s most prestigious boutiques through the dot.com boom, with 70 analysts on the payroll in 2006 ...

, it is difficult to estimate for an industry where few companies are public and new providers continually appear. By 2018, Dan Miller, AVN's managing editor said, "The safe estimate is to say it’s worth billions, but I don’t know exactly how many billion, and no one does."

Notable alumni

* Eli Cross (as Mark Logan): former managing editor *

Anthony Lovett Anthony Lovett, better known as Tony Lovett, (May 13, 1961 – January 26, 2014), was thco-authorwith Matt Maranian of the regional cult classic, ''L.A. Bizarro'', a best-selling underground guidebook to Los Angeles. The first edition of the b ...

: publisher and editor-in-chief (2005–2010).

Adult Entertainment Expo

''AVN'' sponsors an annual convention, the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE), held each January in

Award Shows

AVN Awards

''AVN'' also an award show for the adult industry modeled after the

Oscars The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence i ...

. The awards feature over 100 categories and has an attendance of over 3500 people.

skeptically noted that ''AVN'', in 1997, reviewed over 4,000 new releases in every category in comparison to the 375 films that the

were required to see for the Oscars. This number increased to 8,000 for the 2008 Awards and Paul Fishbein comments that it is "a very long, horrible process". ''The New York Times'' noted that the "precise criteria for winning an AVN are not, well, explicit". Awards often go to consistent advertisers in AVN. Sports columnist

Bill Simmons William John Simmons III (born September 25, 1969) is an American podcaster, Sports journalism, sportswriter, and cultural critic who is the founder and CEO of the sports and pop culture website ''The Ringer (website), The Ringer''. Simmons fir ...

commented that the Awards were "the most secretly captivating telecasts on TV" alongside the

National Spelling Bee The Scripps National Spelling Bee, formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and often referred to as the National Spelling Bee or simply “the Spelling Bee” in the United States, is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. ...

and

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is an all-breed conformation show, held annually in the New York metropolitan area. The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is one of a handful of benched shows in the United States. Dogs are required to be on ...

Violet Blue Violet Blue is an American journalist, author, editor, advisor, and educator. Blue wrote a weekly sex column for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' until 2010. In her podcast, Open Source Sex, she reads erotica and discusses topics such as fe ...

, the sex writer, describes the Awards as "big backslapping event where the same companies and same names win year after year... To think of the 'porn Oscars' as a true representation of porn's very best is like having sex with a

Jenna Jameson Jenna Marie Massoli (born April 9, 1974), known professionally as Jenna Jameson (), is an American businesswoman, writer, television personality, and former pornographic film actress. She has been named the world's most famous adult entertainm ...

love doll and telling your friends you had sex with the porn star". Even Tyla Winn, an award winner, had trouble remembering one of her sex scenes that was nominated.

GayVN Awards

''AVN'' also sponsors the GayVN Awards which are presented annually to honor work done in the gay pornography industry. Awards for gay adult video were a part of the AVN awards from 1988 to 1998. In 1999, ''AVN'' decided to separately host the GayVN Awards.

References

External links

*
''AVN''
– Industry News {{DEFAULTSORT:Avn (Magazine) 1983 establishments in Pennsylvania Business magazines published in the United States Magazines about the media Magazines established in 1983 Magazines published in Los Angeles Magazines published in Philadelphia Monthly magazines published in the United States Mass media in Los Angeles County, California Pornographic magazines published in the United States Professional and trade magazines published in the United States