Disclosure: I skimmed the article. But, basically, the gist is right. The middle of the porn market has fallen out. The only movement is in the super low end s

Disclosure: I skimmed the article. But, basically, the gist is right. The middle of the porn market has fallen out. The only movement is in the super low end stuff (the kind that advertises 6+ hours and sells for $5), with a little bit of action at the top end. The top end is kind of dying out, although I wouldn't go so far as to write an obituary for it. The parody craze is still limping along, and while there hasn't been a movie to cross over as well as Pirates/Pirates 2, there are still a few studios that can regularly command $30-50 retail for a blockbuster and turn a profit doing so. If you read nothing but Xbiz and AVN, you'll get the impression that it's tube sites and piracy killing the industry, but I think the truth is that quality porn is a luxury good, and it's just not going to do well in this economy. The smarter studios are leveraging their existing assets (semi-current footage that can be repackaged into cheaper compilation DVDs, contract girls that can still move expensive films) to make it through the recession, and wildly trying any sort of product diversification (you can find everything from condoms to vibrators branded by the big studios now, on a much greater scale than before.) The smaller firms are finding pretty quickly that porn isn't a one way ticket to profit, which at least allows the big guys access to cheaper talent and inventory as they fail. Government intervention is a persistent worry as well. Stagliano's trial and especially its vague ending have the edgier gonzo guys worried. Different groups in California are clamoring for more regulation re: HIV testing, and in a market where many of the producers just don't have breathing room in their budgets, that could have a serious effect. On top of all that, Blu-Ray never took off like anyone hoped it would, and really none of the traditional studios made a big dent in streaming (except maybe Evil Angel.) The people with the most sustainable business models seem to be those who embraced online from the beginning of their existence (guys like Brazzers, Kink, Reality Kings.) Which really follows the basic premise: if you can offer people lots of porn for cheap, be it hundreds of gigs of content for $20 a month or 6 hours for $5, you'll still do OK in this market. People are treating porn like a consumable now--the online guys follow the Costco model of giving you a ton of stuff cheaper than anyone else does, and the compilation guys are hoping you'll settle for single ply.