Death of Sean Cody
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EXCLUSIVE: SEAN CODY ACQUIRED BY MINDGEEK/MANWIN, A.K.A. THE SAME COMPANY THAT OWNS MEN.COM
The deal is done, gentlemen. The Sword brings you the exclusive news, which was whisper-rumored in the industry for a couple of months, that Sean Cody has officially become part of the MindGeek (formerly Manwin) porn empire. What will this mean for one of the most successful and respected gay porn operations in the business? Only time will tell.
News like this is bound to cause some “another one bites the dust” sentiment among porn fans, especially those who are familiar with the vastly different quality of the product being produced by Sean Cody vs. Men.com.
A person familiar with the deal who prefers to remain anonymous has confirmed for The Sword that Sean Cody himself has inked the deal to sell off the enterprise for an undisclosed sum to the company that owns the massive tube sites that have been pirating Sean Cody’s content for years, sites like Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube. And, if you look down at the bottom of Sean Cody’s homepage now in the new year, as Sword commenter John points out, you can see the contact info for the company has already changed to “MG Billing US Corp” in Wilmington, Delaware.
But what will become of Ye Olde Sectional!?! Will shooting in that ever-familiar San Diego home with the infinity pool shift to some generic locker room set Las Vegas?? Will they make beautiful Brandon bottom for Colby Jensen??!? Or worse, fuck Johnny Rapid!?!?!
As Slate discussed in this piece from October, MindGeek is a bit of a “cautionary tale” for media companies looking to become vertical monopolies covering all ends of the internet. And having acquired so many porn content producers, they’re now “putting industry members in the paradoxical position of working for the very company that profits from the piracy of their work.” Also, it makes the production of high-quality porn almost a disincentive, since the motivation is no longer there to create a singular, successful brand that makes money from subscribers. “The distributor doesn’t necessarily need to make content that generates adequate money for the content producers, as long as it generates money somehow,” Slate points out, like from advertising on tube sites.
So, how long is Sean Cody — who’s now a multi-millionaire at 43 having starting his company in 2001 at the age of 30 — and the team behind him that does all the casting and shooting of the site’s wildly successful content, planning to stick around? My guess is probably not long, though the brand’s reputation among porn connoisseurs could plummet fast if the core creative team leaves too quickly.
MindGeek, though, has been more in the business of quantity over quality (ahem, Men.com), but that’s not to say that the details of this deal don’t lock in Sean Cody’s production team for some specific amount of time.
I like Sean Cody and I also like Men.com. Unlike what the article has said Men.com does produce some good work. Sean Cody and Men.com are very different. Both catering to different aspects of my personality. If they do change Sean Cody that would be a bad idea, since I feel SC is at the top, beating out Corbin Fisher, in their market.
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Well, it might be just a change of owner. It would be pointless buy seancody, which had a lot of users, and turn into a Men.com 2
fingers crossed
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I read somewhere that SC will be the same for now, so it means same conception for now, but how long… Love SC, love their guys
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though i have grown off SC and men.com in the past 10 years due to their generic buff/all american/small dick/cut soul-less porn.
I'm sure that if he is profitable enough with alot of people loving its content, it wont change the recipe.
porn is all about variety, and merging styles is the best way to reduce your audience. -
Oh God, that's just depressing. Hopefully it will just be owned by that company and not run in the same way (in terms of look and production). It would totally suck if SC started looking like Men.com. And having Johnny Rapid in SC - fuck he's boring.
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oh god, i had always loved SC, hope they wont change.
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I feel like SC has dropped in quality a lot over the last few years. I'm just not attracted to the guys they started casting recently. I doubt MEN.com will totally change SC, but maybe they can help pull in some hotter guys
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SC for me is at the top of the porn chain. I don't know why Sean would sell it. It does not make sense at all.
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they should just stay like they are now!!
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No!!! I loved SC! Well…apart from there smaller guys and just general jo vids now. But they brought us some very good ones like Stu!
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There are so many such sites that cater to every different type of audience. SC did have some really good guys though
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Its not surpising for me really. For the past few years most aspects of the site have seemed really half hearted.
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I thought from all of the noise SC is making throughout porn and non-porn gay blogs that they are still the strongest in the market, but I guess all those noises were only part of their marketing. I hope SC won't change their format, but IMO, CF has more hotter models and scenes than SC.
