Six LGBT Publications Close in One Weekend
The much talked-about "death of newspapers" hit LGBT communities in a big way this weekend when Window Media shut its doors, taking with it six major LGBT publications: Southern Voice, Washington Blade, South Florida Blade, 411 Magazine, Houston Voice, and David Magazine. The closing followed months of turbulent struggle within the company that resulted in being forced into federal receivership and the resignation of CEO David Unger last July. Nevertheless, the final blow came abruptly for the employees of Window Media, who arrived at its Atlanta offices this morning to find the doors locked and a brief note informing them that their jobs had gone the way of the dodo:
It is with GREAT regret that we must inform you that effective immediately, the operations of Window Media, LLC and Unite Media, LLC have closed down.
Please return to this office on WEDNESDAY, November 18th, 2009 at 11:00 AM to collect personal belongings and to receive information on your separation stipulations. Please bring boxes and/or containers that will allow you to collect all your personal belongings at one time.
Regretfully,
Steve Myers
Mike Kitchens
Similar notices were found at the company's Ft. Lauderdale and Washington, D.C. offices. Laura Douglas-Brown, editor of Southern Voice, knew as well anyone the troubles of the parent company, but didn't expect the papers to be shut down. "We had all been told that the companies would be sold," she said, sitting outside of the Atlanta office. "The fact that we were shut down was a complete shock."
The story of Window Media's downfall is a familiar one: rising costs plus falling advertising revenue and the stresses of the recession have hit the entire publishing industry. However, Window Media also has had to contend with the fact that as LGBT activists have won greater acceptance in society, mainstream media has begun covering issues that were once exclusive to alternative publications. "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," gay columnist Michael Musto told the Huffington Post. "This was the gay community writing about itself, and that's a voice we should never lose."
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Comments
Shutting Down
It pains me to see these publications go under, but I have a sense that they were they're on demise. To put it simply, it's my opinion that these publications were too narrowly focused on the "young and restless". Rarely did they do in depth reporting on the issues of gay and lesbian and bisexual folks. More often than not, they focused on issues and themes that only related to a minority of their potential readership. The focus was on the youth and the gay men who had disposable income. That's just not the truth of many, if not most, gay men. I'm 62 years old and really have no avenue to explore the issues that address my life, e.g. midlife and elderhood, aging, health care, meeting other men of like spirit, spirituality, mentoring of the youth of our communities, exploring 'sacred sex'., etc. Over the years the coverage of these newsprints became, at least for me, shallow and boring. It was always the same old thing.
Yes...
As a young woman I feel in agreement with Ken on the fact that the focus of these papers (at least the Southern Voice) seemed quite narrow. I picked it up every so often but could never connect with the content. It struck me as geared towards young, well off, highly sexual, pop culturally involved gay men. The occasional gem of an article would pop up but otherwise the paper was something that rarely attracted my attention.
It might be sad for some but paper based outlets are not simply going the way of the dodo they have gone that way. It's most likely over unless they have a strong online presence and even then, nothing is certain anymore for add based rev.
What I do find odd is that the online equivalents are not being sold off as separate assets.