Gawker: valleywag, avn

AdBrite makes clean break with porn-ad partner

Owen Thomas — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:32:22 EST

How eager is AdBrite founder Philip Kaplan to get into the porn-ads business? So eager that he's counting the seconds. On AVNAds.com, the relaunch site for AdBrite's partnership with porn-trade publisher AVN, there's a splash page announcing the move to Black Label Ads, a new website wholly owned and operated by AdBrite, in less than two days. We hear that making a clean break with AVN — without the acrimony of past attempts to split up — was a requirement before Sequoia Capital and other investors put in their latest investment, a $23 million financing round for the online ad network. Not that investors have entirely quelled their concerns about AdBrite being in the porn business. The new site, Black Label Ads, attempts to disguise the AdBrite connection — except in its legal agreements.

AVN, AdBrite part ways over porn

Owen Thomas — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:24:29 EDT

AVN, the porn-industry trade publisher, has at last split with longtime partner AdBrite, which ran an AVN-branded online ad network for adult websites. A new network, run solely by AVN, will launch on December 1. We first noticed the relationship was on the rocks when AVN yanked the AdBrite-run AVNads.com website offline and threw up a hastily built, barely functional site of its own back in August. AdBrite then briefed porn publishers about plans for its own porn-ad network, BlackLabelAds, which was supposed to launch in September, but never did. The two partners patched things up, restoring AdBrite's site. One small problem for AVN, though.

AdBrite is keeping the network's current customers, and, yes, moving them to BlackLabelAds. Which means, as of December 1, AdBrite will officially be in the porn business. AdBrite serves 678 million impressions on its regular network and 267 million impressions on AVNads.com, which means porn ads make up roughly 28 percent of AdBrite's business. That may decrease, of course, if AVN is successful at luring away customers. (AdBrite founder Philip Kaplan has not yet responded to a request for comment, but I'll update the item when he does.)

From the tone of AVN's press release about the split, it seems like the squabbling pair has someone else to blame for their troubles: 365 Main, the troubled datacenter in San Francisco whose backup power system failed during a July power outage. AdBrite's ad servers were among those brought down. AVN goes on at length about its plans to host its network in multiple datacenters, with 24/7 monitoring. One wonders: If 365 Main's failures led, ultimately, to the demise of this relationship, would AdBrite and AVN have a claim for lost revenues?

AdBrite, AVN kiss and make up over porn

Owen Thomas — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:30:10 EDT

Philip Kaplan seems to have patched things up with AVN, the porn-industry trade publisher with which his company, AdBrite, runs an online ad network for adult websites. Earlier this month, AVN had abruptly yanked the AdBrite-run version of AVNAds.com offline and replaced it with its own hastily-built site for selling ads. In response, insiders said, Kaplan was readying to launch BlackLabelAds.com, AdBrite's own porn-ad network. Now, however, the AdBrite-run version of the network is back online. The spat however, came with a heavy financial price.

Rumors reaching Valleywag from adult-industry sources indicate that Lehman Brothers was weighing a large investment in AdBrite — as much as 10 percent of the company — but decided to pass. That's a heavy blow for both AdBrite and its lead VC investor, Sequoia Capital, which frequently partners with Lehman. The reason for Lehman's cold feet? Apparently, AdBrite's involvement in the porn business was larger than bankers there had been led to believe — a fact that may have been uncovered during AdBrite's recent audit.

AdBrite's new porn-ad network to launch next month?

Owen Thomas — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:14:42 EDT

AdBrite is rebounding fast from the loss of its porn-ads partnership with AVN, the prominent publisher of news and information about the adult-film industry. While AVN appears to have taken back control of AVNAds.com, a website previously operated by AdBrite to market a network of independent porn sites to advertisers and publishers, AdBrite is moving ahead with plans for its own network, BlackLabelAds.com. According to publishers briefed by AdBrite, the new network, although it currently points to AVNAds.com, is scheduled to launch on September 1.

Philip Kaplan's AdBrite loses porn-ad network

Owen Thomas — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:09:54 EDT

When you talk about "the Valley" in tech, it's taken for granted that you mean Silicon Valley. But in the world of porn, "the Valley" is the San Fernando Valley, where the adult-film industry has established itself. Now, as porn goes online, there's a long, drawn-out war for dominance fought by the two valleys. And a tremendous battle has just been lost — by AdBrite, the online-advertising network based in San Francisco. AdBrite, Valleywag has learned, has lost the partner that gave it an entrée into the business of selling porn ads.

AdBrite is not keen to let people know it's in the admittedly lucrative business of selling ads for pornographic websites. But for some time, AdBrite has had a partnership with AVN, a powerful trade publication covering the porn industry, to sell ads for AVN's websites and many others, through a site called AVNAds.com. Philip Kaplan characterized the AVNAds relationship as a "technology-licensing agreement," though it's clearly more than that; until this morning, AVNAds listed AdBrite's fax number on its contact information, and ads were served on the adbrite.com domain.

This morning, however, AVN has broken off the relationship and redirected the AVNAds.com domain to a new, hastily built, barely functional website. The ads on the host of porn sites contracting with AVNAds, however, continue to be displayed from AdBrite's servers. From what I've heard, there's a legal tug of war over the relationship. And last month's meltdown at 365 Main, the datacenter hosting AdBrite's servers, doesn't seem to have helped matters. The press release announcing the new AVNAds website stresses that the new venture will serve ads from multiple datacenters. AVN's new online-ad network promises to be up and running by September 30.

In the meantime, though, it seems that Kaplan has a Plan B to keep AdBrite in the porn business under the name "BlackLabel Ads." Until Friday, when I called an AdBrite executive for comment, BlackLabelAds.com displayed a site identical to AVNAds.com except in name. The list of sites on BlackLabelAds.com, and the structure of the site, was identical to AVNAds.com; it even shared the same fax number as AdBrite and AVNAds.com. Today, though the site remains mostly hidden, the logo remains on AdBrite's servers. (The BlackLabel site currently redirects to AVNAds.com, but I believe that's simply because AdBrite execs were hoping to hide the existence of BlackLabelAds.com and were caught offguard by today's move by AVN.)

So here's how the battlefront stands: AdBrite has the actual ads served today on the AVN network; AVN has the AVNAds.com domain itself. The question will be — assuming AdBrite's not going to just give up on the adult-ads business altogether — is whether AdBrite can tell customers about BlackLabelAds faster than AVN can sign them up on the new AVNAds website. Like everything to do with the adult-entertainment business, this battle promises to be messy, dirty, and thoroughly entertaining. And it's all just one more back-and-forth tussle in the war between the two valleys of porn.