Bryan Bybee, the owner of one of the last remaining regional adult magazines still in print and distribution, Portland’s Exotic Magazine, speaks to the “magazine wars” of the ‘90s and other struggles and successes in staying in print for 30 years.
(NOTE: This story was written by Lilly Jenner and appears in the May 2024 issue of ED Magazine.)
In the modern digital world, so much has been modified for ease and convenience; however, ironically, the emphasis on an upgrade can make doing things the ‘old fashioned way’ more difficult.
Maintaining a print publication and distribution has these challenges. Where do you distribute to, and how? Who’s advertising? (Who’s paying?) How do you keep them engaged? These are questions which we, as the only national adult gentlemen’s club magazine in the country, have to consider and configure constantly in order to keep the company in operation.
And so, we at ED Publications resonate with Exotic Magazine, one of the only regional adult magazines still publishing a physical issue (note: NightMoves magazine in Florida is also printing/distributing), since 1993. Bryan Bybee, now owner, has been working with the magazine’s founding owner, Frank Faillace, since 1996. Faillace was old school, according to Bybee — the napkin-contract-in-a-local-bar type — while Bybee was contributing as a freelance graphic designer for two ‘lingerie shops’ (private strip shows, legal in Portland) and a bar, which advertised in the magazine. Bybee officially started working for the magazine in 1999 and has been the owner since 2006.
According to Bybee, ED (EXOTIC DANCER) Magazine and Exotic Magazine share another connection (and we’re not just talking about “Exotic” in the name!). Back in the ‘90s, there were more regional magazines covering local adult content, but no more territory to cover than there is today, and the divisions were not exactly peaceful. Bybee tells that ED Magazine’s late founder Don Waitt, who always pushed for a unified industry, eventually stepped in as “referee” in the so-called “magazine wars.”
“Don actually sat down at a table with all the regional magazine owners and mapped out what would be considered their respective areas,” recalls Bybee.
Unlike their cover girls, the territory feuds weren’t pretty, but they were so epic at times that the local papers would cover them. In one story, Bybee describes how the owner of a now defunct magazine called SFX managed to temporarily shut their press run down by sending a stack of Exotic magazines to the house of the congressman with a note asking, “Do you know what your constituent is printing?”
Whether fighting for advertisers in a saturated industry or for its mere right to press — and the battles are too many to mention —Exotic Magazine has had to reimagine itself numerously to stay in print. One primary principle has run through to this day though, a motto which Bybee says is “corny,” but he believes it has kept Exotic in print: “Don’t just make it work, make it special.”
From hosting the Miss Exotic and PolErotica competitions, to hiring photographers for photo spreads and printing in full gloss — an expensive press run when the last edition was 18,000 copies — Exotic Magazine has established itself as a mainstay. The ongoing victory was celebrated last August at the milestone of 30 years in print. For their 30th anniversary party, cover girls of past and present came to perform, some of whom were middle-aged, but Bybee says all still looked excellent.
In addition to its glamorous covers, now rotated monthly to feature advertising clubs, the magazine still showcases two pin-up models as the centerfold, to show that the entertainer is central.
To this day, Exotic Magazine’s physical magazine is distributed monthly and hand-delivered locally, no matter the weather, a tall order in Portland, which has (by many accounts) more strip clubs per capita than any other major market in the country. Bybee even went on the last run himself, as a substitute for a sick runner. The full map of distribution is available on the Exotic website, as well as within every issue of the magazine as a three-page spread. In their height, Bybee says that they were printing twice as much and distributing throughout Washington and even California.
“I loved the income from those days, but I did not like holding those boxes,” he laughs.
Exotic has integrated its print magazine with social media apps to increase exposure, but they hold off a full day after distribution before uploading the online edition.
“We still want people to appreciate print,” Bybee declares. “That’s our core, and we want to stick to it.”
For more information, email bryan@xmag.com or visit www.xmag.com.
