“I am extremely excited to be joining a gifted staff at such a dynamic and ambitious company,” said Hymes, “and I cannot thank Alec [Helmy, XBIZ founder] enough for trusting me with this position. This is a great opportunity to help a great company, and I only hope I can keep up. Needless to say, I still support the Free Speech Coalition, as all members of the industry should, and will continue to assist that essential organization in any way I can.”
In his new role, Hymes will oversee all XBIZ print and online publications, including XBIZ World, XBIZ Video and XBIZ.com. He also will manage the production of all printed promotional materials for XBIZ events.
“XBIZ has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, and having a publishing veteran like Tom on the team will be a huge asset that will further boost our rapid expansion,” Helmy said.
Hymes entered the adult industry as an AVN Online staff writer in May 1999, when the sister publication of AVN was launched. He served as AVN Online’s chief editor from July 2002 until March 2005.
During his career, Hymes has been an outspoken advocate of 1st Amendment freedoms and an equally vocal opponent of restrictive government measures such as 2257 record-keeping regulations and ICM Registry’s stalled bid to launch a .XXX top-level domain.
