Q: Share with us what BaDoink is all about?
BaDoink initially launched in 2006 as a premier online adult entertainment site, and CM Productions’ first big product. We tried, from the beginning, to focus on content delivery, rather than the content itself. So R&D went into developing software and features to ensure your porn, through BaDoink, is available everywhere you are.
We created the BaDoink Ultra App, a software application for the desktop with features like private browsing, a download manager, wireless streaming to any TV in the house, a DVD burning application, even an iTunes exporter that allows you to view any video downloaded on any iOS-powered device.
In the last four or five years, mobile has been a big focus. We’re pretty confident that our mobile members area is the best in the biz; we’ve got apps in the iTunes App Store and GooglePlay Market, too.
Our brand has grown dramatically over the past few years, so in 2013 we expanded our offering to an online magazine focused on the convergence of technology, lifestyle and sex and destination for the tech savvy adult. We’re keen to be perceived more multi-dimensionally, and the magazine is key to accomplishing that goal.
All of the explicit content on BaDoink is and will stay behind the pay wall. Our editorial focus is on lifestyle, technology and sex. We’re always going to have something for everyone, be that politics, health, fun and entertainment, whatever; when you open BaDoink, you’ll be opening a window onto ALL aspects of today’s world.
Q: Why did you find a need for this type of magazine?
In an era where true, journalistic integrity is being sacrificed on the altar of click through metrics, manifesting as click-bait strategies, there’s a need for strong content; and we surmise we’re just the organization to service that need.
Our mission is to provide quality, entertaining and informative articles covering lifestyle, technology and sex. Playboy ruled this world in the 20th Century, but it’s 2014. Time for a new bunny.
Forbes recently called us the 21st Century bunny; an honor to the utmost. Playboy has long heralded some of the world’s greatest writers, among them Ivor Irwin, who writes for us now. But really, for the longest time, getting published in Playboy, it meant you’d more than arrived as a writer; it meant you’d made it. That said, the only pressure is to deliver the best quality product possible. We are picking up where not only Playboy left off but the “state-of-the-state” of journalism today as well. Our editor-in-chief, John Lane’s credo sums it up well: What was once hidden under the bed is now at home on the coffee table. We are serving up savvy, chic and sophisticated news; we’re not a “one-click wonder“.
Q: How do you differ from Playboy?
It is a different time and that’s why we saw the opportunity to do something more, and profoundly different, just like Playboy did in the early 50’s. Today, adult-oriented content is part of the pop cultural discussion. It was always a form of entertainment, but the taboos that prevented it from being viewed as an acceptable entertainment form are being swept away.
One of the biggest issues for companies like Playboy, and even Penthouse, was that it took them so long to jump on the Internet bandwagon, to surrender to it, to embrace it for what it was: a game changer of the highest order.
And I don’t think you could call it short-sighted on their part. The bigger the change, the harder it is for a big organization to react. Hindsight is 20/20. Plus, nobody really knew for sure back in the 1990s how far this thing was going to go. It just appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and proceeded to change the world.
The difference with us, and why we truly get it, is that CM Productions is first and foremost a technology company, an Internet company. I personally know a little something about print publications, but that’s because I’m old. The web is the platform we know. That’s how we’ve always gotten our message out; that’s where our products live.
As we expanded into different entertainment sectors, adult being one of them, we achieved our greatest success through optimizing the user experience. The content itself was secondary. Ensuring that every surfer was greeted by a user interface and experience that was easy-to-use and suited to their unique device, that was where we put our resources. Now, with the magazine, we’ve upped the ante: Usability. Critical mass. High-quality content.
The medium’s a huge part of the equation. Print, not long ago, generated the topical information; today it’s the internet, and it’s a much different experience. Design. Speed. Interactivity. Immediacy. As always, if you don’t have great stories, your shelf life is limited. But that’s only part of it. Lacking an experience that is immediately immersive and intuitive, immediately engaging to the online reader, it’s just as deadly. You’re quickly a historical footnote, no matter how good the journalism.
Pando Daily also articulated very well that BaDoink is the “internet’s answer to Playboy”. And, as I like to say, if BaDoink were a person she’d be smart, sophisticated, surprising, a little mysterious. She’d be full of convictions, insight and wit. Welcome to BaDoink.
Q: There was an internet rumor about malware was found with one of your apps. When things like this happen, how do you handle this to assure the public that you’re a reputable business?
I’m glad you brought that up; it’s an issue we’ve been working relentlessly to resolve. On Wednesday, May 7, one of our developers discovered that the BaDoink brand and logo was being used to spread the Reveton/IcePol Ransomware. We reacted immediately, identifying the site that was distributing the ransomware, then contacting our corporate council, who took action to remedy the situation. He alerted the site’s hosting company, and submitted a DMCA takedown request. He contacted the FBI’s cybercrime division. He sent a C&D to the owners of the domain names as well.
BaDoink.com’s desktop software application, “The BaDoink Ultra App,” has been cornerstone to the BaDoink brand and member experience for years. We’ve also created mobile apps that are sold through the iTunes App Store and the GooglePlay Market; and they are marketed EXCLUSIVELY through the iTunes App Store and the GooglePlay Market.
So the notion that our brand or our software applications are being falsely associated with anything malicious is something we take seriously. It goes without saying that neither BaDoink.com, nor our company, CM Productions, LLC has anything whatsoever to do with this exploit, and, as stated above, we are doing everything in our power to ensure the entire issue is resolved.
Q: Any advice for anyone who experiences bad press/publicity?
Get in front of the story. Take immediate action and ownership of the situation. Any message, good or ill, can spread like wildfire. You need to act and react as quickly as possible to ensure you’re in control and staying in constant communication with your audience; be it followers on social media, recurring site visitors, stake holders at all levels.
Honesty is always the best policy though because the truth is out there. And whether you’re a celebrity, company or an ordinary person, that truth will inevitably rear its head. People, viewed individually or as parts of larger groups, are a pretty forgiving lot. They’re going to find out anyway. So it’s a lot easier to triage a PR disaster if you’re straight with them.
Q: Tell us about the girls being featured on your site?
The girls in the magazine are starlets who’ve headlined scenes for BaDoink HD Studio. They’re all working in Los Angeles, and they run the gamut: there are fresh, new faces and AVN award winners. The talent is picked by Dinorah, our content manager, based in the Barcelona office. She storyboards the scenes, and Nick Melillo, an industry vet if there ever was one, organizes and shoots them.
Q: Would you feature someone in your magazine that has had bad press in the past?
In a heartbeat. I mean, ‘bad press’ is subjective. If somebody slams a celebrity in a blog post, and that blog post generates buzz, enough buzz to increase that celebrity’s brand, is it bad press? And with the myriad news organizations out there, you’re pretty much assured as much bad press as good press, and vice versa.
Q: What are BaDoink’s plans for the next year? What goodies do we expect to see?
We see a very bright future ahead at BaDoink. We’re currently working on a redesign for a more interactive online reader experience. That’s part one.
We’re also launching a new channel, Xposure.tv, a new subscription-based adult site geared towards the new generation of sexy and savvy travel lifestyle. Touted as the next-gen “Girls Gone Wild”, it blends the sophistication and innovation that BaDoink is known for in technology and adult entertainment. Xposure.TV is built on 100% exclusive content shot in 1080p. It follows the carnal exploits of one of Europe’s most highly regarded porn producers, Conrad Son, throughout exotic vacation destinations.
Xposure.TV is presented to adult surfers as a web series, with episodes focused on romps through different locales. Over the course of season one, Conrad and his band of amateur, fun-loving girls tour Spain and Spanish islands like Ibiza and Mallorca.
They don’t just visit these European hotspots then repair to a nondescript hotel for sex. Scenes are shot everywhere. Sex in boats on the Mediterranean. Sex in cars tearing up the coast. Conrad even rented two private jets for one scene. Two prop jobs. He’s in one of them shooting across the sky at a girl in the cockpit of the other plane masturbating. It’s an industry first and we can’t wait for everyone to see it. That’s part two and well part three we will be announcing later this year.
Overall though, from a purely editorial / magazine stand point, there are online periodicals that arrived recently, like The Onion, not so recently, like The New York Times. Both are part of the larger ‘conversation.’ “I read it in The Onion,” that means something. “I read it in the Times,” that means something, too. “I read it in BaDoink?” Sounds more than reasonable to me.