The End of Gay Mainstream Media? — UPDATE
The nation’s largest publisher of newspapers serving the gay and lesbian community has shut down.
Laura Douglas-Brown, editor of Southern Voice newspaper in Atlanta, said she arrived at work Monday to find the locks changed and a note saying parent company Window Media LLC had closed down.
She said the company’s other publications – including the Washington Blade, Houston Voice and South Florida Blade – were also being closed.
“From my understanding, there was just no more money to keep these companies running,” she said in a telephone interview as she sat with her former employees outside their locked Atlanta office. “We had all been told that the companies would be sold. The fact that we were shut down was a complete shock.”
The company’s financial trouble stemmed from a number of factors. Besides an industrywide drop in advertising revenue amid the economic meltdown, mainstream publications are writing more about gay and lesbian issues, reducing dependency on niche publications such as Window Media’s.
The company had been struggling financially since last year. The company’s majority stockholder, New York City-based Avalon Equity Partners, was taken over by the U.S. Small Business Administration in August 2008, Douglas-Brown said.
Just last month, the Washington Blade celebrated its 40th anniversary. News editor Joshua Lynsen declined comment on the newspaper’s closure.
“Window Media long provided a very special outlet for the gay community to learn about itself way before there were a lot of other places to find that type of thing,” said Michael Musto, an openly gay writer for the Village Voice in New York, which is owned by Village Voice Media Holdings. “This was the gay community writing about itself, and that’s a voice we should never lose.”
This is too bad. While I probably disagreed editorially 99% of the time with the Window Media publications — their presence as true journalism within the gay community was important. Their reporters were professional and had a lot of integrity. For example, only the Washington Blade reported that the murder of African-American teens in Newark was related to their sexual orientation.
I’m not sure I trust the “rest” of the mainstream media to accurately cover gay and lesbian issues the way the Window Media publications did.
Hopefully, the Blades & Southern Voice will be reborn in a new way soon.
UPDATE: Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff has told Politico.com:
“The Blade staff is united and ready to continue the paper’s long-standing mission. The first meeting for our new venture is Tuesday and we welcome the community’s input as we move forward.”
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
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Underlying this journalism was an understanding of what it meant to be gay–being gay meant drugs, STDs, multiple partners, gender-bending, and Pride parades. That was the norm and any other expression of homosexuality which did not include these things was eccentric. So, this kind of “gay journalism” was toxic to the community and good riddance.
Those of us “eccentrics” for whom “marriage” does not mean “sexual liberation for everyone” will be happy when this kind of journalism is no longer the default position for homosexuals.
Comment by Ashpenaz — November 16, 2009 @ 7:15 pm - November 16, 2009
here is more news of all those evil gay folk out to destroy. . .
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/help-for-gay-caregivers-who-look-after-elderly/
Comment by rusty — November 16, 2009 @ 8:27 pm - November 16, 2009
Now if we can get rid of Seattle Gay News.
Unfortunately the owner/publisher/editor, George Bakan, is thousands of years old
Comment by Discarded by Hope and Change — November 16, 2009 @ 9:15 pm - November 16, 2009
Rusty,
Segregation now? Integration never? Is that your point?
I was unaware that gays needed different care than other elderly people. How queer!
Comment by American Elephant — November 16, 2009 @ 10:00 pm - November 16, 2009
Do they have separate facilities for elderly blacks as well?
Comment by American Elephant — November 16, 2009 @ 10:06 pm - November 16, 2009
They are separate, but equal, AE.
Comment by Ortho — November 16, 2009 @ 11:30 pm - November 16, 2009
Wow! Guess my copy of Houston Voice with me in it is a collector’s item. Got a few copies of TWiT (This Week in Texas), now defunct, stashed somewhere too. TWiT was a weekly glossy detailing the goings on at the major Texas gay bars.
Say, aren’t we supposed to believe that gays have more money that straight folks? Am I to understand that gay publications aren’t able to tap into (no pun intended, well maybe) investors?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — November 17, 2009 @ 4:57 am - November 17, 2009
{speculation} TGC, it could be that the DINK phenomonon allows gay couples/singles to bypass the print media entirely, allowing for more internet access and other means of media. {/speculation}
Comment by The_Livewire — November 17, 2009 @ 6:55 am - November 17, 2009
You must have been reading a different version of the Wash. Blade and SoVo than I did. Where can I get that copy? (Kidding!)
Certainly the Windows Media publications covered the circuit parties and the other questionable aspects of the “community”, but I found both papers (SoVo when I lived in GA and the WashBlade when I lived in DC) to be full of good information that had nothing to do with drugs, STDs, or the other things you mention. There were excellent news pieces on local issues that impacted the gay community, calendars of events that had nothing to do with parties or drugs or sex, listings for health resources, reviews of restaurants, artists/exhibits. All the things a good community paper should have.
When I came back to the states in ‘99 and started the process of coming out, the Southern Voice (and then the Washington Blade) were fantastic resources. I read both regularly. And yet somehow I’ve never done a single illicit drug, never been to a circuit party, never had an STD, and have maintained a monogamous relationship for going on 10 years. Guess they failed in that mission, huh?
Comment by Neptune — November 17, 2009 @ 9:58 am - November 17, 2009
I, too, missed the articles about gay Christians and the ones where abstinence was suggested outside a lifelong covenant relationship and the ones which offered a critique of Stonewall-type activism. Huh. I wonder how we both could have missed so many issues?
Comment by Ashpenaz — November 17, 2009 @ 10:23 pm - November 17, 2009
Touche, Ash. Well-deserved poke back at me. While I often disagree with you, I cannot say I completely do this time. It would be better if the gay media was a more welcoming print space for those beliefs (wrong word? the right word escapes me here) as well. Alas, I don’t expect that will be the case. And that is unfortunate. But I do bemoan the demise of an otherwise decent community resource.
Comment by Neptune — November 18, 2009 @ 11:01 am - November 18, 2009