JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 [Vol. 11, No. 10/11]
A Publication of Rivendell Media

Celebrating 10 years of serving our community of journalists

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Feature: Lessons to be learned from 2009: Despite last year’s economic tumult, the LGBT media landscape is looking brighter, and more digital
Sidebars: New LGBT papers flourish in Florida; Chicago Free Press survives staff walkout
In The News: Windy City Media and ChicagoPride.com create single community calendar; Here Media and HIV website launch new “Ask The Doctor” campaign
Letters to the Editor: Media shutdowns may mean losing our history
Transitions and Milestones
Bulletin Board
Staff
Contributors to This Issue
Contact Us

The year 2009, in historical hindsight, may well prove to be pivotal for the media industry overall, with publishers and editors – in fact, all journalists – feeling the full force of the recession and the digital revolution. LGBT outlets were no exception, especially gay print publications.

Belt-tightening publishers pinched pennies, cut costs and saw revenues decline, along with drops in circulation, print runs and page numbers. By year’s end, the Window Media and Unite Media mini-empires had collapsed, shuttering the venerable 40-year-old Washington Blade, Southern Voice, Houston Voice, and South Florida Blade, along with bar and nightlife magazines David Atlanta and 411 Magazine.

And the Advocate, already reduced to a monthly newsmagazine, announced it would no longer be mailed as a standalone publication. Rather, it now arrives by mail along with OUT magazine.

Some smaller publications fared just as badly. For example, the monthly magazine Out on the Coast, based in Roseland, Fla., ceased publication. And the Chicago Free Press [see “SIDEBAR: Chicago Free Press survives staff walkout” below], saw three key employees leave, due in part to late paychecks and what publisher David Costanzo referred to as “a short- term cash-flow problem.”

Across the pond, the recession forced London-based Pink Paper, Great Britain’s leading gay publication for two decades, to suspend its print version.

And yet LGBT media endured. “We’ve survived,” wrote Boston- based Bay Windows co-publishers Sue O’Connell and Jeff Coakley in an end-of-the-year editorial [www.baywindows.com]. “It has not been easy in this economic climate,” they continued, while voicing optimism for a better year ahead.

Windy City Times [www.windycitytimes.com] publisher Tracy Baim offered her assessment. “As a whole, the media industry dodged a bullet this year,” she said. But, “[the bullet] is not going away. There will be a significant shift away from print over the next few years. There’s no doubt that print publications are going to continue to die. It’s a shame, but the advertising is moving to online and other forms, including iApps.”

Welcome to the brave new, technologically savvy future of mobile applications for gays. Last fall, Windy City Media Group released the first in a series of gay news applications for the iPhone. The new free application, Baim explained, includes links to the weekly edition of the publication and breaking news and entertainment items.

What’s more, Rivendell Media president and chief executive officer Todd Evans said his marketing firm has entered into a partnership with MyGayGo, LLC, producer of software that allows users to quickly locate the closest LGBT events and businesses. Already, MGG is the number one LGBT mobile app on iTunes, according to Evans [whose Rivendell Media also publishes Press Pass Q].

“It’s a win-win,” he said, speaking of the new software product. “First, it’s good for the product’s developers to get publications’ advertisers on board.” For publishers, “They get exclusivity in their market and are able to provide value added, then can upgrade the advertisers as a new revenue source for their publications.” Best yet, said Evans, “This will be a way to bring publications easily into the 21st century.”

Hard times took a toll on nearly all media outlets, including LGBT ones. Nonetheless, 2009 was not entirely an annus horribilus.

Indeed, “2009 was a terrible year overall, yet December was our best month ever. Go figure,” said Evans. Still, “December will not make up for the year, but it is a good indication that print is not dead and media ad placements are still there to be had. It just takes real work and real numbers.”

“We believe we have turned a corner,” said Dallas Voice [www.dallasvoice.com] publisher Robert Moore. “We went into the last two quarters of 2009 watching every penny and making sure we spent our money wisely,” he said. And yet, “If you made it through 2009, the year 2010 holds a lot more promise.” A case in point is his commitment to a “complete gut and redesign of our digital portal,” with “our company broadly expanding our capabilities.” To that end, “I am putting a much bigger investment on the digital edge than I could have possibly done a year or two ago. I’m investing heavily.” A second quarter launch date is expected. “I feel we are going to hit that.”

So are print publications’ days numbered?

“Print is essentially dead, in my opinion,” said Johnathan Hale, publisher of the San Diego Gay and Lesbian News [www.sdgln.org]. “I know that some people don’t think that’s the case. But if you are a news organization, you’re printing a weekly publication with content most of the population has already seen through their preferred daily news website or Twitter or Facebook.”

An entirely online publication, SDGLN launched recently with a goal of reaching further within the gay community and beyond to straight people, according to editor Margie Palmer. “We launched in [the fourth quarter] of the Great Recession,” she said. “Somehow we are managing to make this work.”

SDGLN has partnered with Palms Springs-based Bottom Line Magazine [www.psbottomline.com] as well as lesbian publication Flawless Magazine [www.flawlessmagazine.com]. To reach mainstream readers, SDGLN has also partnered with the San Diego News Network [www.sdnn.com].

“We are the first to have a mainstream media source partner with a gay source,” said Hale. “We share our [gay] content with SDNN, and mainstream San Diegans get exposure to our community. We’ve never had that before,” referring to the advantage straight people gain by “seeing that we are like they are, that we have organizations and families, too.”

Still, not everyone has written print publications’ obituary, including Michael Portantino, publisher of the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Times [www.gaylesbiantimes.com]. “Print still has a place,” he said. “People still like to take it to the beach, sit in the backyard with a cup of coffee or in a hotel room.”

And yet, Portantino knows that new media technology, including social networking media tools are the wave of the future. Gay and Lesbian Times, for instance, posts stories on its webpage daily, sends out a weekly e-blast to 12,000 readers, and boasts a digital edition of the paper with page-turning features. Only several months old, the digital daily has garnered attention and respect, ranking among the top 25 most influential political and news websites in the Southwest, according to the Huffington Post.

Altogether, what other take-home lessons are there from this past year's LGBT media rock and roll? “One thing I think is important to point out,” said Rivendell’s Evans. “The publications that are doing well are those that have developed their online sites and generally have made themselves essential to their community,” referring specifically to Minneapolis-based Lavender Magazine [www.lavendermagazine.com] or Philadelphia Gay News [www.epgn.com]. “You really need those publications to be informed in those markets.”

Need another harbinger of good LGBT media times? St. Louis- based The Vital VOICE [www.thevitalvoice.com] is back. “We have completely changed format, direction, and business structure,” said Darin Slyman, new publisher and owner. “We have also added a video reporting and production side to the new Vital VOICE and are currently working something out to broadcast with PRIDE Radio.”

Also keep in mind, said Rivendell’s Evans, “All former Window Media/Unite Media paper markets have new publications,” including D.C. Agenda [taking over from the Washington Blade] and GA Voice [replacing Southern Voice]. The former 411 Magazine is now Mark’s List Magazine. And the Florida Agenda has replaced South Florida Blade.

“Since [those prior publications] generally did well, all should do fine now that they do not have the debt overhead, “ Evans explained.

Additionally, South Florida attorney and former owner, publisher and founder of Express Gay News Norm Kent has launched a new gay weekly: South Florida Gay News [www.southfloridagaynews.com] [see “SIDEBAR: New LGBT papers flourish in Florida” below]. At 48-pages strong, the newsweekly’s first issue launched on Monday, Jan. 25. “This is a thriving gay community,” said publisher and owner Kent. “I am going to put out a quality paper. I am really confident. I know the market and did this before.”

A prominent Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., attorney is back in the gay newspaper game.

Last month, Broward County criminal defense lawyer Norm Kent announced the launch of a new LGBT weekly, South Florida Gay News.com [www.sfgn.com]. Kent, who said that the new publication would go by the nickname SFGN, wanted the print newsweekly to include a dot-com on the masthead “in order to accommodate and acknowledge, promote and link the diverse media platforms a 21st century newspaper has to deliver,” according to a news release.

Sure enough, SFGN’s website was up and running before the new year, well ahead of the inaugural hard-copy print run on Monday, Jan. 25 – 48-pages strong in tabloid format, with 12,000 copies distributed to 350-plus locations in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

“I don’t believe gay media is dead,” Kent said, speaking by phone on the morning of SFGN’s first edition. “Obviously, throughout the economy, business revenue is down. Our community is hurting but still thriving. But I am confident if I deliver a quality professional publication to the South Florida gay community, as I have in the past, it will be supported enthusiastically.”

Kent’s journalistic bottom line is this: “We are going to publish a fiercely independent publication, a credible and legitimate newspaper,” a publication featuring “topical news, cutting-edge issues, outspoken columnists, and articles capturing the breadth and diversity of gay life.”

An attorney for more than 30 years, Kent founded Broward County’s LGBT weekly newspaper back in 1999. In 2003, however, he sold Express Gay News to Unite Media, which continued publishing the weekly under the original name, eventually changing it to the South Florida Blade.

Kent’s plans include bringing back some of his best columnists who previously wrote for Express Gay News, as well as popular cartoonists and correspondents. Nationally renowned columnist Jennifer Vanasco and New York City-based activist and author Wayne Besen, who hales from Broward County, for example, will contribute to SFGN.

“We are a work still in progress,” he said. “There are openings for creative talent.”

Kent fondly remembers his time with Express Gay News.

“Express was the culmination of my life as a gay rights advocate,” Kent said. “I let it go in order to preserve it for posterity, and I learned a life lesson again: That if you love something, invest in it with sweat and tears, and keep it close to your heart.”

Kent faulted the publishers of Unite Media for “losing touch with the community I intended the paper to serve,” he said. “The quality of the product that the South Florida community has been exposed to has diminished tremendously.”

Bluntly, Kent added, “I feel the people I sold my paper to raped and plundered the newspaper.”

Meanwhile, the South Florida economy has been especially hard hit, primarily due to a bursting of the regional real estate bubble. “That had a ripple effect throughout because so much of the local economy is dependent on development,” said journalist Steve Rothaus, a gay beat reporter for the Miami Herald. And yet the economy will “come back. It always does.”

And yet Kent’s news operation faces direct competition from the locally well-known Mark’s List brand, a South Florida- based online website that has launched its own print publication, Florida Agenda.

Publisher Mark Haines hired former Blade staffers to write, edit and produce Florida Agenda, immediately after Unite Media shuttered the publication. [Attempts to reach Haines were unsuccessful.]

For his part, Kent intends to remain in the game for the long run. Already, he has signed a lease for office space in Wilton Manors, Fla., one of the fastest growing gay communities in the country. Later in the year, he said, there would be a satellite office located in Dade County.

— Chuck Colbert

Chicago Free Press survives staff walkout

Its website is up and current, posting the newly designed Chicago Free Press logo CFP [http://dev.chicagofreepress.com]. The weekly publication’s masthead lists a new managing editor, Kerrie Kennedy, along with art director William Golden. CFP’s marquee opinion columnists – Jennifer Vanasco and Paul Varnell – continue writing.

More importantly, the Chicago Free Press has continued to publish its print edition each week since a staff revolt and walkout erupted last month.

Publisher David Costanzo readily acknowledges that the CFP has been scrambling to keep the presses running, with financial difficulties an ever-present reality. “Three employees left, reportedly because their paychecks were late,” Costanzo said in a recent telephone interview. “We’re talking about a few days, not weeks. But the paychecks were late.”

Right before Christmas, former editor-in-chief Matt Simonette, senior writer Amy Wooten and art director Vince Lane did not show up for work, according to Costanzo. “My understanding is that they were not happy about some things, but they never told me” directly.

Simonette told local media that staffers did not receive paychecks that were due to them on Dec. 15. “The senior staff did not resign; it was simply a matter of leaving because of non-payment,” he told the Chicago Tribune. While staffers’ paychecks were late, editorial contributors had not been paid since mid-November, according to Simonette.

“We had a lawsuit that was about three years old,” explained Costanzo. “It had something to do with a payment somebody made to us that they wanted back. The case went silent, we forgot about it. Then a day before payroll, Dec. 14, [the aggrieved party] did a levy on our checking account. It was frozen, and we couldn’t get any money out. I tried to get the account unfrozen, but it was a three-day process.”

Costanzo, a former investment banker and executive at the securities firm Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, founded Rainbow Media in 2002 for the purpose of buying The Chicago Free Press. At the time, Costanzo acquired CFP assets from Novus Publishing Group, which launched the newspaper in August 1999 when – ironically – staffers from the original Windy City Times, then published by the late Jeffery McCourt, staged a walkout to start a new publication. McCourt subsequently sold Windy City Times’ name and archives to rival Outlines publisher Tracy Baim.

For her part, Baim, Windy City Times publisher and executive editor, told the Chicago Tribune that there would be no grave-dancing if CFP were to close. “I would never count on something being truly over until it is,' she said.

Costanzo voiced appreciation for Baim’s remarks. “She had a perfect opportunity to take a cheap shot at us, and she didn’t,” he said. “She was very respectful and I thought that showed a lot of class.”

— Chuck Colbert

A Chicago LGBT newspaper has teamed up with a local website to create a community calendar.

The Windy City Media Group – which publishes the Windy City Times, Nightspots and Windy City Queercast – and ChicagoPride.com unveiled the calendar on Oct. 5.

Both companies touted the project as “a unified community calendar designed to connect the LGBT population to the numerous diverse possibilities the community has to offer.” The new aggregate also allows users to submit their own events.

Tracy Baim, publisher of the Windy City Media Group, further described it as a “one-stop community calendar” in an interview with Press Pass Q. Her staff currently posts events for Chicago’s bars and clubs, but both her and ChicagoPride.com’s staffers post content to it as they receive it.

“We felt like combining our resources would really bump up the quality and comprehensiveness of the calendar,” she said. “[This] is a one-stop shop for that.”

Baim added that simple logistics were one of the primary motivations behind the calendar. The person who compiled fundraisers, parties and other events for the Windy City Media Group passed away, and his death left a rather obvious void.

“The organizations are happy to have it in one place,” Baim said. “Part of the frustration over the years is there are often conflicting events in the community.”

Philadelphia is among the other cities around the country that have LGBT-specific calendars.

Steve Long of ChicagoPride.com said that the Center on Halsted is among the local organizations that have already utilized the calendar. And he added he is excited users themselves have begun to take advantage of it. “From that perspective, we’ve met our goal: to create a universal calendar so people didn’t have to search around online.”

— Michael K. Lavers

Here Media and HIV website launch new “Ask The Doctor” campaign

Here Media and HealthyWithHIV.com have unveiled a new campaign that both media outlets hope will allow people with the virus to live healthier lives.

The companies launched the campaign on Sept. 15. It features New York-based Dr. Frank Spinelli, who appeared in “The Advocate Guide to Gay Men’s Health and Wellness,” in a series of online videos titled “Ask the Doctor.”

Each clip focuses on specific topics that include treatment options, support networks for people with HIV/AIDS, dating and nutrition. Viewers are able to ask Spinelli specific questions through an interactive online forum.

“I am honored to be part of a new initiative that helps to promote health and awareness for people living with HIV,” Spinelli said in a statement Here Media provided. “It is imperative that we are all fully aware of what steps can be taken in order to live our best, most dynamic lives, regardless of our HIV status. We hope to inform, enlighten and entertain our audience in a way that helps them achieve a balanced and healthy lifestyle.”

Josh Rosenzweig, senior vice president of integrated marketing for Regent/Here Media, told Press Pass Q that the campaign sprung out of the overwhelmingly positive feedback he said the Advocate received after it published its guide to gay men’s health.

“We knew we had something really special in this book,” Rosenzweig said.

He added that Regent/Here Media’s acquisition of Alyson Books and other former PlanetOut properties further facilitated the process through which the company was able to launch “Ask the Doctor.”

“We have all of these other things to bring to the table to make the package more attractive,” Rosenzweig said, as he referred to Here’s ongoing efforts to emerge as an LGBT multimedia company. “That’s the model.”

Indeed, Here revealed “Ask the Doctor” less than two weeks before it relaunched Gay.com. Stephen Macias, senior vice president of Regent Media, told Press Pass Q that the new website is part of his company’s ongoing effort to bring “people together for community.” And Rosenzweig was quick to add that “Ask the Doctor” provides a forum in which people who access it can feel comfortable.

“We’re living in a world where any sort of connection through the digital world remains virtually anonymous,” he said. “If I live in Wichita, Kan., and have had the same physician I’ve had since I was nine years old, … there may be questions I’m not comfortable to ask him or her.”

— Michael K. Lavers

In Chuck Colbert's article on the demise of Window Media [“Washington Blade no more: Window Media newspapers in D.C., Atlanta and Florida shut down,” November 2009], there's a passing reference to the Washington Blade's archives. This is a vitally important point. In these days of media consolidation and shutdowns, a huge part of our history is being lost.

As a former editor of the New York Blade, I witnessed this firsthand. When Window bought the Blade, many of the previous files and several of the old issues were lost. I tried to keep as much as I could, but when the Blade was sold to HX, a lot was lost in the transfer. Now, with HX and the Blade gone, I fear that much of that material, which included a huge photo archive, is lost. Those photos are invaluable and, once lost, can never be recovered.

Remember, these were taken in the pre-digital age, and exist only as 'hard copy.' Among many others was a cache of over 100 photos from the '70s gay magazine Michael's Thing that chronicled the first Gay Pride marches in New York from 1970 on.

Over the past few years, I had worked with Lou Maletta, the gay cable pioneer whose shows 'Men on Film' and 'Gay Cable News' dated from 1982. Plus, he had original shows from 'Emerald City,' the first gay TV show ever. It was heartbreaking to see no one expressing any interest in these video archives, which were rapidly deteriorating as we were approaching universities and foundations. David Geffen's foundation and Yale were among those who didn't express interest. New York University finally agreed to house the archives, although the rate of their transfer to digital is a race against time at this point. Footage included gems like Bette Midler at the first post-Stonewall Pride rally, the only footage ever shot of the shows at the Black Party at the old Saint, interviews with pioneers like Vito Russo and the earliest AIDS protests.

Losing all of this is a crime akin to the burning of the library in classical Alexandria or the Taliban blowing up the Buddha statues. We'll be judged by future generations for our neglect of this heritage.

Steve Weinstein
Editor-in-Chief
Edge Publications

[What’s your opinion? We’d like to know. Send your letters to editor@PressPassQ.com. Letters should be kept to a maximum of 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.]

CORRECTION

Due to an editing error, Stereotypd magazine’s hometown was incorrectly listed in the December 2009 issue. In fact, it is based in Asheville, N.C. We regret the error and any confusion this may have caused.

[Editor’s note: Are there important changes going on at your publication? E-mail the information to editor@PressPassQ.com.]

ACCESS LINE, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, announced that TIM NEBODA is the new manager of print and online sales. Neboda previously worked with RAINBOW MEDIA and the CHICAGO FREE PRESS in Chicago. Neboda also manages the marketing and advertising agency REACH OUT MARKETING LLC.

ASIAM.FM, a new weekly LGBT radio show available online and based at TanTalk Radio 1340 AM in Clearwater, Fla., premiered in December 2009.

STEVE BLANCHARD is the new editor of Orlando, Fla.-based WATERMARK. Previously, he was the newspaper’s Tampa Bay bureau chief.

BOSTON SPIRIT MAGAZINE is the recipient of the 2009 Award of Excellence from the Greater Boston Business Council.

MARIA COUNCIL has joined Portland, Ore.-based JUST OUT as calendar editor.

PATRICK FARABAUGH, publisher of Madison, Wisc.-based OUR LIVES, was featured in the November 2009 edition of Madison Magazine.

CRAIG KARPEL and MARC MANNINO of the publicity/marketing firm THE KARPEL GROUP, along with journalist ARI KARPEL, have launched the daily e-mail and website MODERNTONIC.COM, which offers pop culture recommendations from an LGBT perspective.

LAVENDER magazine, based in Minneapolis, has won eight Minnesota Magazine Publishers Association Excellence Awards. The magazine won two gold awards in the Best Editor’s Editorial/Letter and Best Regular Column categories as well as three silver awards [Best Digital Media, Best Media Kit and Best Use of Visuals/Photography] and three bronze awards [Best Single Cover, Best Table of Contents and Best Use of Visuals/Photography].

METRO SOURCE magazine, based in New York, N.Y., celebrated its 20th anniversary with its December 2009/January 2010 issue.

Q-NOTES, based in Charlotte, N.C., has changed its online address to GOQNOTES.COM. Its old address, Q-NOTES.COM, still forwards to the new address.

AMY WOOTEN, former senior writer for the CHICAGO FREE PRESS and the WINDY CITY TIMES, has joined CHICAGOPRIDE.COM as contributing editor.

MYGAYGO, the largest LGBT iApp, is now looking for exclusive arrangements with local LGBT publications nationwide. This iApp will be available only to one publication per market, allow all the publication’s advertisers to be listed for free and provide many upgrades for the publication’s advertisers, providing a new revenue stream to the publication’s sales staff. To learn more, contact Rivendell Media for a simple PDF to explain the benefits to you. 908- 232-2021.

ON THE WEB. At the Press Pass Q website - www.PressPassQ.com - you'll find back issues and subscription information. Also, at the Q Syndicate website - www.qsyndicate.com - you'll find up-to-date information on the 12 columns and features we distribute to gay and lesbian media: A Couple of Guys, Bitter Girl, Book Marks, Deep Inside Hollywood, Editorial Cartoons, Now Playing, Out of Town, The OutField, Political IQ, Q Puzzle, Q Scopes, and Sex Talk. For information about subscribing to Q Syndicate content, write to qsyndicate@pridesou rce.com or call toll-free 888-615-7003.

DO YOU HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT for the Bulletin Board? Are you trying to get your work published? Looking for job applicants? Promoting a special project? Press Pass Q is now distributed to almost 2,000 working professionals in the gay and lesbian press. Bulletin Board announcements are just a dollar [U.S.] per word per insertion, paid up front. Send a check payable to Rivendell Media, 1248 Route 22 West, Mountainside, NJ 07092.

Publisher: Todd Evans, todd@PressPassQ.com
Editor: Fred Kuhr, editor@PressPassQ.com
Associate Editor: Dave Brousseau, dave@QSyndicate.com
Contributing Writers: Derrik Chinn, Chuck Colbert, Tanya Gulliver, Liz Highleyman, Michael K. Lavers, Matthew Pilecki, David Webb

CHUCK COLBERT is a freelance journalist based in Cambridge, Mass. He is a longtime contributor to the National Catholic Reporter and covered the crisis of clerical sex-abuse in the Boston archdiocese. Previously a senior reporter and columnist for the former In Newsweekly, he is a contributor to Keen News Service and Boston Spirit Magazine. Also, he has written for major mainstream daily newspapers and magazines, including the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Dallas Morning News, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Washington Post. He can be reached at crciiiund@aol.com.

FRED KUHR is an editor, reporter, performer and personal trainer based in Toronto. He has written for The Advocate, AdWeek, Toronto-based Xtra, and Boston Spirit Magazine. He has also served as editor of now-defunct publications In Newsweekly [based in Boston] and Out in the Mountains [based in Vermont]. He has served as a news analyst on the Fox News Channel and CBC Radio, as well as other media outlets. Fred blogs about politics and pop culture at the FredBlog at www.fred- blog.com and has been rated one of the top Twitterers of “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance.”

MICHAEL K. LAVERS is the National News Editor for EDGE Publications. His work has appeared in the Fire Island News, the Guide, the Village Voice and other LGBT and mainstream publications around the world. He has also provided commentaries on LGBT issues to the BBC, “The Brian Lehrer Show” on WNYC in New York, “La Razón” in Spain and other media outlets. He also blogs at Boy in Bushwick, which can be found at www.bushwickboy. blogspot.com.

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