I think it is great that Stephen F. Macias from Regent Media chimed into the conversation. I was highly disappointed though when Here media bought over the Gay web monkey sites because they discontinued my advertising which kind of shows their ignorance in a way to new media. Possibly Regent runs things better?

With the 2010 elections coming up we need gay media now more than ever. So many huge things on the line for gay rights.

The Blade is too worried about offending sensibilities and Keven Naff is too timid to take the game to Joe Price and his band of brothers who’ve been charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy and crime scene tampering. Some celebrated gay rights attorney Price turned out to be!

It’s probably a very interesting article, but it becomes an electronic blur.

maybe I’m an oldtimer and my eyes are bad, but to read this, I have to print it out.

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll check them out.

best,
Mark

I’ve found a few people here and there who are competent but they soon realize the pond they’re swimming is filled with people who don’t know what they’re doing and leave for a better (paying) pond filled with grownups.

I’m not suggesting that the woes they’re encountering can be laid wholly on this but it sure can’t help the bottom line when staffing changes and morale churns.

I think you’re expecting far too much from Queerty.

As far as I can recall, it is no longer considered a news site and, hence, does not need to follow the basic journalistic standards of accurate reporting…

As executive vice president and general manager of Regent Media, I read your post with great interest as it relates to the question, “Is This the End of Gay Media?” As an employee of gay media, I find many of your assertions paint an inaccurate picture of our company’s landscape and strategy.

First of all, you note that The Advocate changed its publishing schedule to monthly. This decision was made in May of 2008, well ahead of the current challenges that face print media. http://www.ebar.com/news/artic.....ticle=3265
Clearly, Queerty would like to link that decision with doom and gloom in order to support your site’s effort to be “provocative.” The fact of the matter is that the strategic decision was part and parcel of the company’s envisioning of the relationship between the print and online expressions of The Advocate. It was long overdue and part of our immediate plan. That online and print strategy is proving even more beneficial during the unexpected collapse of the American economy. Advocate.com’s traffic has increased by triple digits, and newsstand sales of the monthly magazine are exceeding our goals. While an e-mail sent out to entertainment publicists from Queerty’s editor uses traffic numbers that dispute that, it should be noted that Regent Media is not tagged for the analytics service that Queerty refers to. Additionally, our direct mail campaigns renewing or signing up new subscriptions are the strongest they have been in years.

Your post goes on to say that The Advocate’s “parent company” PlanetOut reduced its staff by a third. PlanetOut has not been The Advocate’s parent company since Regent Media completed its acquisition in August of 2008. This simple fact underscores the many inaccuracies posted to this site.

Amplifying Queerty’s incorrect reporting, this piece goes on to discuss specific staff members like Kerry Eleveld (whose named is spelled incorrectly in your piece). Contrary to your assertion, Ms.Eleveld is not and has never been The Advocate’s sole news staffer. Sean Kennedy is currently our news editor, and Eleveld has transitioned from political editor to Washington correspondent. Indeed, moving Ms.Eleveld to Washington, D.C., expands our presence in the hub of a dynamic political climate that is important to our LGBT audience. Other news staffers, including Neal Broverman, Ross von Metzke, and Michelle Garcia, are part of our dedicated newsroom.

We are very proud of the work that our news staff and a bevy of contributing writers like Julie Bolcer (who was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for her Advocate.com work) and others are doing. Such good efforts from a hardworking group of LGBT journalists allowed Advocate.com to suspend its use of the AP in 2008 after Regent Media’s acquisition of the stalwart brand.

And as long as we are talking about the work of great journalists, it needs to be said that the expansion of The Advocate’s scope of coverage to provide more attention to subjects like finance and health speak to the needs of all LGBT Americans. Expansion in coverage of these topics is not at the expense of news in the brand. News coverage has also expanded on the Web with a growing video strategy as well. What the LGBT audience interacts with every day is not limited or defined merely by our sexual orientation, but rather how we live comprehensive lives as members of society. While your post is critical of The Advocate’s expansion into covering new topics, looking at the entire world through an LGBT lens is something that only gay media can and will ever do. If we don’t share our thoughts or points of view on issues that affect our lives, who will?

Finally, I find it disconcerting that your post states that you reached out to David Unger, who did not respond to your requests for comment, yet you failed to reach out to our company and you posted completely out-of-context and outdated quotes from our CEO Paul Colichman. After I passed the inaccurate statement describing PlanetOut as owner of The Advocate when the company went public in 2004 (it did not buy The Advocate until 2005), I was taken aback by the quote from Paul that he has no interest in gay media. While it’s true that there was one issue of a here! Networks branded “magazine,” it was a marketing tool in its inception. The very old quote speaks to the marketplace as having been saturated by established, solid LGBT print brands. Since purchasing the properties, everyone at this company, starting with Colichman and his partner Steve Jarchow, has been committed to reinvigorating what Queerty refers to as “the most prominent gay publication on the planet.”

For 41 years The Advocate has been built on the shoulders of men and women who cared deeply about our community having a voice. Regent Media takes the responsibility of continuing that tradition very seriously as well as the responsibility of providing a progressive, secure workplace for its hundreds of employees and thousands of freelance journalists, contractors, and artists. While we strive for perfection every day, we are under no illusion that we are perfect. We try every day to do a better job at what we do and eagerly look for constructive criticism to make our brands better. We are optimistic around our challenges and grateful for the opportunity to work with talented people doing important work. In the eternal words of Gloria Gaynor, we too “will survive”, and be better for it with the support, experience and guidance from the LGBT community.

Sincerely,

Stephen F. Macias
EVP, General Manager
Regent Media

Here at EDGE, we don’t fit easily into the “buckets” that make up the gay media industry – at least according to this blog. But we’re dynamic, we’ve got a large, national, growing readership, we’re entirely digital, and we’re working with many major gay newspapers to help them realize new revenue streams from an increasingly online world. (We’re also desperate for journalists – so for those of you in this thread who are bemoaning the lack of work, please send your resume to us at careers@edgepublications.com.)

Some gay media companies are struggling – and the proverbial writing on the wall is probably posted for a number of our most recognizable properties, which is unfortunate. But that does not mean that “gay press” is dying; it is simply evolving. And the fact that we keep equating the death of a tiny number of those high-profile print titles with the industry as a whole is, IMHO, nonsensical.

THe news article although ok , are not enough to get me to renew my subscription.

I hope they change their focus.

I want to know what rights I have, and which ones I’m likely to get in the next year or so. I don’t read about celebrities – gay or heterosexual – unless they’ve done something newsworthy from an LGBT perspective, such as expounded on our rights at the Oscars. So I’m not surprised that the move toward lighter coverage fell flat.

I’m not sure what the solution is, but the publishers would be best served to look beyond who they think is their “target reader,” and do a better job of recognizing that G&L individuals are not all the same, come from all parts of the country, and live varied lives.

My favorite new gay title is a smart, well designed lesbian book out of LA called “Jane & Jane.” Puts the gay male books to shame.

Unfortunately, blogs have undercut sales of print publications in almost every sector. I suppose I blame it on the fact that the publications catered to an audience that was never very literate to begin with. That kind of audience didn’t place much value on the superior writing and production quality of print publications, and so was very willing to go where the content is free.

Shouldn’t we be celebrating the diverse offerings of all gay media instead of trying to tear it down? Just a thought.

Their web site is http://www.aboutmag.com. We should email the publisher and ask them to start distributing in more places.

I’d like to underscore that pivotal point. I’ve been in gay media nearly two decades and have worked with many talented and dedicated journalists–who are often handicapped by greedy higher-ups who believe “no one reads” and who view their own readerships with condescension.

These owners got away with it–and had no reason to invest $$$ in the Internet–because they had a steady ad base and no competition until recently. Then the pharmaceuticals stopped advertising, as did the music and porn industries, and blogs like queerty stole their readers.

And can we stop comparing Advocate and The Blade with Out and Instinct. There is a difference between news sources and lifestyle/entertainment coverage. Half-naked pretty boys in expensive underwear belong in the later (how many mainstream entertainment mags feature “regular”-looking folks?). News and entertainment are often intertwined in LGBT media (Exhibit A: Queerty). This complicates matters.

Finally: Yes, we desperately need LGBT media. As Duncon Osborne pointed out, when LGBT media (ie, the reporters and editors) do their jobs, they cover LGBT issues better than any MSM outlets.

For me personally I do find a place for gay media when it comes to gay news. I feel like we are fighting again in a way we have not for years for our rights and I don’t know if I completely entrust receiving all my news about these matters from mainstream media.
Until our equality is encoded into law I think there is going to be a huge need for information sources that are dedicated to us. But with the internet I think we will find most of our needs met in this area anyway.