Paul Colichman, the whiny queer version of Rupert Murdoch, has finalized his latest additions to his list of gay media holdings. The Regent Entertainment chief, who already owns Out, The Advocate, and the mostly invisible here! TV network, now has an 80 percent stake in PlanetOut Inc. in the newly branded company Here Media, giving him control of HIVPlus magazine, Alyson Books, and websites including Advocate.com, Out.com, HIVPlusMag.com, OutTraveler.com, GayWired.com, SheWired.com, PlanetOut.com, and Gay.com. Score one for gay media — or score one for yet another media conglomerate gobbling everything up in some senseless stab at synergy while the people who suffer are the consumers?
All of Gay Media Are Belong to Paul Colichman
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jesus_mary
The grammar of your headline would tell me that consumers aren’t getting much to sneeze at from any gay media.
David Hauslaib
@jesus_mary: Get up to speed, my friend:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us
jesus_mary
Well ain’t you are clever… I had no idea. That’s why I call me “jesus_mary,” cause wonders never cease. 🙂 So did anyone else read the sec statements? They clearly state that Specialty Publications, the porn ass end of things at regent, is not part of the new company. Will it just swing free out there on its own?
Bob
Another cheap shot at Colichman. What a surprise! Seriously, Queerty, what’s the deal with your hatred of the man and his company?
Spiritt
This guys is like gay God in the industry. Too bad that he still has Stephen Macias working for him. Macias is know in the community as the rudest, most condescending non-professional with no substance…..fraud there is. I hope that Colichman sees the light.
jesus_mary
I have heard a lot of unpleasant stories about Macias, too. But then you know what Roman Polanski said about LA: “Forget it Jake, its WEHO.”
Losangelessur
Jotcha, Jesus! What a bummer it would be to work for such an a-hole like Macias. It is funny, his name is so close (yet so far) from Gracias……. And I agree about the grammar: “All of Gay Media Are Belong to Paul Colichman” it read like a junior highschooler wrote it.
ColorbiNumbers
@Losangelessur:
Ok folks please catch up to speed on your internet lingo…the author is making a clever play on the phrase “All your base are now belong to us..”. Google it if you don’t know what it means.
As far as the merger. I’m happy to see it. I’ve been worried for a long time that PlanetOut, Gay.com, and the Advocate were going to fade int oblivion. Which isn’t a good thing. Now it looks like they’ve been bought by a company that “get it” and will do something positive and lucrative with the business.
jesus_mary
colorbinumber, all platitudes aside, no one here is saying they aren’t happy about the news. But we are asking, as we should, about the story behind the news. As for them that “get it,” maybe they do. But the question remains, even if you “get it,” how much “it” is there to “get?” So far with only a few exceptions the identity-based major media has had a rough time of it. Market contraction can make for a low low initial purchase price, but the cost of operating an inexpensive car is as high as an expensive one. When gay.com and planetout merged, look what happened to planet out. It died on the vine.
Bob
ColorBiNumbers writes; Ok folks please catch up to speed on your internet lingo…the author is making a clever play on the phrase “All your base are now belong to us..”. Google it if you don’t know what it means.
Sorry, dear, I don’t have time to Google every headline that looks like an obvious grammatical error.
Losangelessur
Exactly, Bob
MassEdge35
One really has to question the logic with Here!’s transaction. How is gay.com going to compete with Manhunt? Was gay.com really worth $4+ million for this new entity? How is Here! going to stop the losses at Out and the Advocate in the most horrible of economic conditions? PlanetOut lost $100 million trying to make this work. Maybe Here! wants to put in $200 million. What is happening to all the associated debt? As someone once said “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
Johnny
@David Hauslaib: It’s not a very good play on the original. No wonder the confusion.
Johnny
@MassEdge35: Do you really think the folks that made this transaction are so oblivious as to have ignored questions of whether those brands can make money? They obviously decided it was worth the investment. These are not amateurs who can’t read financial reports.
Hope
Very mature, “Spiritt” aka Eric Feldman.
Steve
I really hope this isn’t the end of free speech in the gay world: One company owning ALL gay media. A monopoly is a monopoly is a monopoly. Instinct, Genre… they don’t stand a chance. And I like them better than Out ot Advocate.
owen
Queerty, Free of an agenda. Except that gay one. Hmm seems like there IS an agenda to shoot down, criticized, bad mouth any and all things of or relating to Paul Colichman. It just reads as bitterness and jealousy. I’ve found Paul to be an incredible savvy businessman going back to his days running IRS records. I also wouldn’t confuse Stephen Macias’s spot on ability to manage some of Paul’s holdings as rude or condescending, it’s called righting an otherwise sinking ship.
Poodle McClure
Owen, first it was Matthew Bank and Dave Under with HX/Genre/Window Media mania. Now they’ve moved onto to someone else because he’s a bigger fish that they can “fry” now to make themselves feel better. It’s just bitchy gayness at its worst.
Cole
gay media is dead in the water. Here! isn’t turning a profit and neither is Logo. it’s a dying industry now that other networks i.e. Bravo & ABC court LGBT viewers and publications are dead whether gay or straight. bad investment on Colichman’s part.
MassEdge35
Johnny I have investment banking experience in the media industry (in particular print and web), Out and the Advocate are not really worth anything. In fact Here was basically given the titles by PlanetOut because nobody else was interested. They are amateurs in the print world. Their “experiment” of owning print, web and events in the gay world didn’t work as their $100 million in accumulated deficit proved it. At the end of the day a lot of investors lost a good deal of money. Hey maybe Here has some magic formula to turn these titles around. They should start first by hiring an Editor in Chief who is in touch with the real “gay” world.
Owen
Hmm an investment banker, not exactly someone’s expertise to trust these days. What is the real “gay” world? Maybe we need finacial bankers that are in touch with the real “finacial” world. Let’s see an article about a possible first gay govenor, Obama delivering on his promises to the real”gay” world, a photo essay on prop 8, a story on lesbian Rachel Maddow, a story on lesbian pro tennis player Amelie Mauresmo, a story about taking an hiv med instead of using condoms, a story about a gay sex addict, a story about the L word. It all seems to resonate with my “gay” world.
TheBloke
@MassEdge35:
Gay.com is worth $4 million because they own the e-mail addresses and surfing habits of millions of gay men. If you ever subscribed, watch your inbox. PlanetOut burned through $100 million (if that’s the real number) because they had posh offices worldwide, paid ex-TREME-ly well, moved VERY slowly, and hired 2 people to do what an intern would do at most companies. In my business dealings with the company, I couldn’t believe the incompetence/arrogance of some/many of their execs and lower-level employees. There was a “throw money at it” mindset that boggles. As for OUT, ADVOCATE and the porny MEN, FRESHMEN, 2, etc: these were/are valuable BRANDS that the company couldn’t figure out how to monetize online. Sorry, but when you’ve got Miller Lite and American Airlines et al throwing millions at you every year with very low expectations (it’s PR money essentially) you should be able to figure that shit out. One of their biggest mistakes was firing the longtime brains (a lesbian) behind their porn empire because [allegedly] she wasn’t “presentable” to prospective investors. I think this was the root problem with PNO — they tried to de-gay their empire to make it appeal to advertisers and in the process lost any appeal and EDGE their publications and sites might have had. It was adapt or die, and they didn’t adapt. There is room for profitable gay media but the folks at RegentMedia are not the ones to do it. And I’m concerned that they own the Advocate — THE gay institution if you don’t count John Waters. This is the company that released gay and non-gay versions of at least 2 motion pictures [see 2004’s A VERY COOL CHRISTMAS vs. TOO COOL FOR CHRISTMAS — her 2 gay dads replaced by Mom/Dad in VERY]. By the way, they’re advertising for interns at all their properties. Free media, indeed.
MassEdge35
@TheBloke:I agree with you 110%. I have to wonder what these funds are thinking that gave PlanetMoron that $26 million or so infusion . Should be very interesting to see what falls out of this “transaction”.