Better Know Your Arty Fag Rags

These are downsizing, belt-tightening times for much of the media industry. But somewhat incongruously, New York–based gay magazines are thriving. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” says AA Bronson, director of Printed Matter and co-editor of Queer Zines, an encyclopedic history of the genre released this fall. Bronson credits Butt magazine, founded in Amsterdam and now edited in New York, with influencing a new generation of titles that are at once arty and dirty. “They hit on the right formula at the right moment, which was to deal with the gay world as if it were just part of the world at large, with its own heroes in every field—from porn stars to authors to artists.” [NY Mag]