Another gay pub cuts back

Like the rest of my life, I’m a few days behind on the news.

Just a couple days ago I posted about PlanetOut’s continued financial problems. After posting an accumulated loss of $100 million, it was later announced the first LGBT company ever publicly traded is now facing threats of losing their Nasdaq listing.

Back in March, we learned that The New York Blade, a publication jointly operated by Window Media (Washington Blade, Southern Voice) and HX Media (HX Magazine), was cutting back from weekly publication to bi-weekly. At the same time we heard of HX Philly’s impending closure.

On Aug. 1, Ohio’s Gay People’s Chronicle announced it too will be cutting back from weekly to bi-weekly publication.

I’d had some conversations with one of GPC’s staffers about the situation early on. My heart kind of broke for them. I imagine Ohio and the Carolinas are in about the same place when it comes to media coverage by and for the LGBT community. I can’t even begin to imagine if small-to-medium sized gay papers began to disappear. In the Carolinas, at least, that’d end up spelling a major division in what has been a fairly united and motivated LGBT community, given our politically, religious and socially conservative climate.

The good news is that GPC says that with this decision they’ll be able to continue and stand on solid financial legs. Awesome.

I’ll echo my statements from just a few days prior: Take any of our LGBT media outlets away — whether that be in large metro areas or smaller, more rural regions — and a big glaring hole will likely remain unfilled and whole communities will suffer.

Posted in LGBT, Media, United States |