CHICAGO, IL — There’s no doubt the proliferation of free porn on the Web has cost the adult entertainment industry some big bucks. According to sources like Hollywood trade journal Variety and adult industry trade journal AVN, DVD sales over the past year are down by as much as 50-percent.“The mood’s gloomier than I have seen it in a long time,” according to AVN Media Network founder and president Paul Fishbein. “Adult [entertainment] used to be considered recession-proof, but it’s not.”

In a recent report entitled “The Hispanic Market Can Save the Adult Industry” Marcelo M. Rios and Charles Johnson contend that a growing Hispanic population in the U.S. may be a key to reversing the depressing trend.

“With a population of approximately 35 million, the Hispanic community makes up approximately 12-percent of the total U.S. population,” Rios and Johnson wrote in the report. “According to the U.S. Population Projections 2005-2050, the Hispanic population, already the nation’s largest minority group, will triple in size and will account for most of the nation’s population growth from 2005 through 2050. Hispanics will make up 29-percent of the U.S. population in 2050.

“Considering the Hispanic population’s rapid growth, it is definitely in the adult industry’s best interest to focus its marketing efforts on this market.”

Rios is the chief executive officer of Custom Creative Marketing, and eight-year-old firm that assists companies in tailoring their marketing efforts to the Hispanic community. He said considering the loyalty of Hispanic consumers, it’s surprising the adult entertainment industry hasn’t tapped the market yet.

Part of the reason for that, Rios and Johnson wrote, may be a misperception that Hispanics occupy the lower socioeconomic strata in American society and don’t have much disposable income to spend on porn. However, the pair point out that “Hispanic buying power jumped from $429 billion in 1996 to $870 billion in 2008, and the Hispanic share of the total U.S. disposable income reached 8.6-percent. Most importantly, according to the Selig Center, 44.2 million people in the U.S. are Hispanic and they buy 30-percent more DVDs than the average household. As a result, retailers and suppliers have taken note by increasing the number of Latino-oriented [mainstream] DVDs offered over the past several years.”

Where the adult industry is missing the boat, according to Rios and Johnson, is in not providing Spanish-language translations of their existing titles. In addition, the industry should consider producing new titles in Spanish.

“There are very few Spanish-speaking adult movies in circulation,” they wrote. “The few that are out there are very low budget… There [don’t] appear to be any adult movie producers willing to make quality movies for the Hispanic market. Current adult titles only hint that the movies feature Latina men or women.”

Consequently, Rios said, there is a tremendous opportunity for adult producers who are willing to take risks in the Hispanic marketplace — a market already being tapped successfully by softcore magazines. Notmusa USA, the parent company of Maya Magazines Inc., last year launched Extremo, an ad-free, 128-page softcore adult magazine aimed at Latino men 18 and older. Available only in California, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, and Texas, the magazine began with a circulation of 5,000 copies and by earlier this year had quintupled its print run. The publisher hopes one day the U.S. version will rival the 400,000 circulation of its Mexican cousin.

“Extremo magazine illustrates the burgeoning marketing opportunities that lie ahead for the adult industry and the Hispanic market,” Rios and Johnson wrote. “Like the mainstream DVD sales opportunities, the Adult DVD market is in its embryonic stage. However, in light of the rapid population growth of the Hispanic community, increased Hispanic buying power, and most importantly, the fact that Hispanics buy 30-percent more DVDs than the average household, this is a great time for the adult industry to begin to position itself and to recapture some of the lost revenue from regular DVD sales.”