In a post yesterday about prominent members of the gay community who appeared, based on information from the Los Angeles Times, not to have donated money to fight California's Proposition 8, we misidentified the president of Regent Entertainment Media; he is Paul Colichman, who donated $25,000 to fight Prop 8. (The snafu? Differentiating between Regent Entertainment Media and Regent Releasing.) We apologize for our error, and ask you not hold our mistake against Regent.

» Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

Okay, we thought it was already official, but apparently now it's double official, because Regent Media sent out a press release today annoucing the finalization of its Out, The Advocate and generally all of gay media buy. [Jossip]

  Respond
» "Embarrassing."

Media journalist Erik Sass finds PlanetOut's publishing sale "embarrassing:" "In an embarrassing setback, PlanetOut Inc., a leading LGBTmedia company, is selling its magazine business for a song… Having purchased [Out and The Advocate] and erotic book business of Liberation Publications for $32.1 million in November 2004, on Thursday PlanetOut announced it is selling the magazines to Here Networks, a gay and lesbian-themed TV network, for a paltry $6 million." [MediaPost]

  10 Responses

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There are new details on Regent Releasing's bid to buy The Advocate and Out.

San Francisco Business Times informs us that Regent, which owns gay network here!, gave PlanetOut an initial $500,000 to seal the deal, but the final sale will total $6 million in cash - far cheaper than we anticipated.

The deal now gives PlanetOut more time to focus on its websites, which have been underachieving over the past few years:

PlanetOut publishes magazines like Out and Advocate, but wants to return its focus to its web sites gay.com and planetout.com, which have been contributing a smaller percentage of its revenue recently.

The company's online segment has been contributing less to its revenue for each of the last three years. In 2005 it accounted for 87 percent, in 2006 54 percent, and in 2007 51 percent. Magazine publishing's portion of total revenue rose in each of those years, from 13 percent in 2005 to 46 percent in 2006 and 49 percent in 2007.

No wonder rival Window Media wanted the titles so badly. We don't know what went wrong, but we know the company - publishers of Genre - made and lost its own bid for the gay glossies.

» PlanetOut Sale Final?!

The rumors were true. We hear that Regent Entertainment's bid for PlanetOut's magazines will be finalized today. The Los Angeles-based company simply couldn't resist bringing Out and The Advocate into their fold, which includes gay cable network here! We'll keep you posted as we hear more of the details.

  16 Responses
Rumors Of "Imminent" Sale...

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It's been a little over two months since gay media giant PlanetOut put itself on the auction block. So, what's happening with the company?

First and foremost, book wholesaler Bookazine snatched up a piece of the company's Publishers Distributing Company, which includes Bruno Gmunder Verlag and Starbooks Press.

Meanwhile, PlanetOut's magazines, including The Advocate and Out, remain the big mystery, with sources telling us more people were interested in a buy than executives anticipated.

While nothing's set in stone, there are murmurs that Regent Entertainment, which owns queer cable channel here!, has been circling the gay glossies. One speculator described a sale as "imminent".

Any one out there hearing more details on these developments?



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