Business POV

MrSkin.com is an online database of nude, non-hardcore-pornographic movie scenes. It's run by Chicagoan Jim McBride and is a sizable operation: He holds shareholder meetings, hands out dividends, and is breaking in a new COO. The current revenue model is to attract subscribers to the site, which they have done: McBride says there are over 25,000 who pay fees of up to $29.95 a month for access. The company currently grosses $6 million a year. Now, with 44 employees and 6 million visitors a month, his next move is to start courting big-name advertisers. He thinks that because MrSkin is not a hardcore pornography site, he has a strong chance.

When he started the business in the late 1990s, he culled together about $70,000 from several investors, who still own minority stakes in the company. McBride says that one of the allures of the site is that it offers more than the video clips and pictures themselves: An in-house staff writes movies reviews and rates the scenes. It turns out that that's a key aspect from more than just a content standpoint: As a movie review and news site, mrskin.com can rely on fair-use provisions of copyright laws and pull excerpts from the films themselves.

www.mrskin.com