It took a couple days, but Here/Regent Media chief Paul Colichman is out today with a public letter to readers. It’s his way of saying: All is not doomed! Despite what this website says!
Reacting to our report that The Advocate was gutted with major layoffs and a plan to take the magazine off the newsstand and begin shipping it with Out, Colichman explains, after pointing out the crappy economic situation:
The recent closures of Gourmet, Portfolio, Genre, and other magazines have shown the weaknesses of the print publication model. The rising costs of paper, printing, and postage have become a major problem. Therefore, we plan to greatly reduce these costs by jointly marketing The Advocate and Out magazines. We will fulfill Advocate subscriptions via joint delivery with Out. Advocate subscribers will continue to receive their monthly magazine along with a copy of Out at no extra charge. This move will also allow us to continue to offer Out at affordable subscription prices, either as a stand-alone title or with the choice to receive The Advocate as well. The strategy preserves our ability to deliver the same high-quality print magazines while allocating additional resources to editorial content.
But there might be room to boast!
During an economically troubled 2009, which saw the death of many important print publications, both The Advocate and Out fared significantly better advertising-wise than the industry as a whole. Together the brands will show a small profit.
Note that word “together.” As in, The Advocate bled cash, but when paired with Out‘s profit margins, Regent can say the brands made money. Which is, actually, great. A media company’s brands often do subsidize their other money-losing moving parts (hello, Conde Nast and AOL/Time Warner). So it’s refreshing to hear Out is doing so well, with Aaron Hicklin’s glossy fashion spreads and power ranking lists, that it can fund the costly editorial and reporting inside The Advocate.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Full letter here.
UPDATE: Regent SVP Stephen Macias talks to XM host Michelangelo Signorile, who writes for The Advocate, about all the gossip surrounding the magazine. (Audio via PHB)
Mike
Doesn’t Colichman’s letter pretty much confirm just about everything that was in the Queerty story last week? Well, except for the stuff he flat-out ignores (the doubling of health insurance deductions for staff, the massive layoffs, the not paying contributors, etc.)?
Keith Kimmel
I guess time will tell. Hopefully they dont gut the quality of the publication as they make it an insert. But consolidation likely is a smart move. Its always been cheaper to mail one large item than two smaller ones seperately and the cost per copy goes down as the print run goes up.
Lady Ga-Gasp
In the letter, Colichman claims that Advocate online is exploding with traffic versus a year ago. This is simply not true. Most metrics are flat, and only a minor increase has been gained (from the relaunch of gay.com, where stories now out-link to Advocate and Out in order to jack up their respective traffic). Gee, this all feels very deja vous all over again. He also doesn’t say what they plan to do for Out & Advocate subscribers now that the two are combined.
Puck
Fuck that shit, I want to buy the Advocate, not OUT. They are going to lose customers by doing so, mainly me.
terrwill
I can’t figger this one out. Out has zero articles, so-so photo spreads, basically a fashion mag. Advocate has lessened its features and articles with each issue. Its pretty sad that the community cant fork over @20.00 a year for a magazine that at one time had a lot of features that were important to the community.
Scott NYC
Good-bye Advocate. Please tell me HRC is next. GLAAD, too.