Paul Fishbein: "Somebody turns 18 every day."

I spoke with AVN president and co-founder Paul Fishbein today.

Like a pornische Obi-wan Kenobi, since being canned by AVN I have become more powerful than anyone could ever imagine, so it was odd sweeping back into the AVN booth at the convention with my entourage, pimp cup, phat azz hoz, and bling to talk with my old boss for a side project I’m doing for Cat Fancy.

Fishbein started out in video stores in Philadelphia, and AVN grew from a newsletter he put together for store customers in 1983. “Eventually store owners and consumers from around the country wanted to subscribe to it,” he said.

I asked whether he felt that aspects of the adult market would drop off as other ones expanded. Particularly, would the video store die as more and m0re people got their porn on an iPod?

“Somebody turns 18 every day,” he said, “and the tactile experience of visiting a video store I can’t see losing its attraction in this generation.” Fishbein is partners in seven east coast video stores, he said, and he still visits adult bookstores when he travels.

“I don’t put a quarter in the peep show,” he said, “but I look to see what’s on the shelves.”

He notices that mainstream outlets that stock adult titles often have a poorly-organized porn section.

“The adult sections are usually a mess at Tower or the Virgin Megastore,” he said. “They should have someone knowledgeable putting together the adult section in the same way they organize any other section.”

He speculates that the standard video store like Blockbuster, which is losing money, would seriously consider stocking adult to save itself, “but I think they’d probably opt to close instead.”