LOS ANGELES — Online industry veteran Joe E has passed away, according to friends and industry associates.
Joe E co-founded CEN (Cyber Entertainment Network), one of the most expansive paysite affiliate networks of the early 2000s. He also created the online adult industry trade publication KLIXXX, and originated Island Gathering, a retreat-style event for adult site webmasters.
Fellow industry veteran Kevin Blatt called Joe E “a marketing guru, a showman, a friend and, most of all, a pioneer for the adult industry in general.”
“I never met a more interesting and benevolent marketing guy in all my years working in the online adult biz than Joe E,” Blatt eulogized. “He lived hard, he loved hard. He was a family man. He loved his mom, who passed several years ago, so much and I know he really adored being a dad. He took care of so many people, from employees to friends, and suffered a lot of hard losses, from his bodyguard Big Scotty — who perished in the plane crash that took the singer Aaliyah while we were all in South Florida for a show — to being locked out of his company and screwed out of all of his businesses.
“Who could ever forget the full Norwegian cruise ship he rented out for an evening back in 1999-2000?” Blatt recalled. “He did it to entertain the masses, and to get more affiliates to his websites. Imagine the movie 'Caligula' on a moving ship in international waters. The gambling, the excess, the exhibition of every sexual niche you could imagine — he pulled off a party that was unrivaled. Even Hugh Hefner couldn’t throw a shindig like that. So many incredible memories come to mind that it’s going to really take some time to let this all settle in.
“I’ll miss Joe and his devilish smile so much,” Blatt concluded.
Jonathan Silverstein described Joe E as the epitome of "one of a kind" and "a living legend in our lifetime."
“Everyone who knew him has their own Joe E story,” said Silverstein. “I have dozens, most not for public consumption but all legendary in their own way. He was a real mensch and will never be forgotten.”
Veteran webmaster Colin Rowntree dubbed Joe E “the embodiment of the high-roller industry player in the early days.”
Rowntree remarked that it was always one of the highlights at trade shows to see what over-the-top thing Joe E would do.
“Besides renting an entire Norwegian Cruise Line ship to throw a bacchanalian party for a thousand affiliates and players, he handed out $100 bills to anyone that welcomed him back after a particularly ugly tribal war with his affiliate partners which almost destroyed him — he miraculously survived — and threw $25,000 into the air for people to grab at a party he hosted for affiliates at a local gentlemen’s club,” Rowntree reminisced. “Yet, beneath the glitz and audacity of his events, lay a man deeply invested in his community. His spontaneous acts of kindness over the years were truly extraordinary to witness.”
For Rowntree, Joe E was a figure whose impact was monumental and who represented a bygone era in the industry.
“He rightfully earns a place as an epic hero of mythic proportions, a key influencer who shaped the industry during its formative years,” he concluded.