The D.C. Agenda Refuses to Write the Blade‘s Obit
The D.C. Agenda, the replacement to the just-killed Washington Blade, is here, it’s queer, and we’ve got no problem getting used to it! The physical product might be a shadow of the Blade, but it’s just Week 1, and editor Kevin Naff and publisher Lynne Brown are just getting started with their new media baby.
Introducing the paper, Naff writes: “The former staff of the Washington Blade remains united and DC Agenda represents our effort at continuing the important mission and work of the Blade. It will grow and evolve to include a much larger and more diverse group of voices. But the core of the Washington Blade’s work remains unchanged. We will cover Congress, the White House, the LGBT rights movement, the D.C. marriage fight, local hate crimes and other political issues important to the LGBT residents of the city. … The strength of the Washington Blade did not lie in its brand name — it came from the spirit of those who worked passionately to serve and inform our community. Those people are still here. Our work continues.”
Great. Now, to the gossip! So what, from an insider’s perspective, really happened to lead to the Blade‘s closure?
Uh, well, Naff isn’t telling. In the front-pager where he said he’d delve into the Blade‘s demise, he only writes, in part: “So what actually went wrong with the Washington Blade (or more to the point, with the Blade’s recent, distant ownership)? Who really knows? I do not plan to investigate that story personally. I will just leave that to experts on grassy knolls and schemes hatched by Bernie Madoff.”
Huh. When the Wall Street Journal was sold to Rupert Murdoch, the newspaper’s own staff did a fine job reporting on the transaction. And yet the D.C. Agenda is going to leave it’s own history up to reporters at other gay publications, like Gay City News, the Bay Area Reporter, and the Philadelphia Gay News? How … un-journalistic.
Wait, so if they don’t understand why people in DC stopped reading and buying ad space in the Blade, then it sounds like they are setting out the make the exact same mistakes they’ve been making for the past 5 years or so.
Cam, I think the reading/buying part was due to the Window Media management that took the “heart and soul” out of the paper to make it a mindless drone/machine. WIthout Window Media’s interference, they should be able to bring back something amazing for the area.
I hope you’re right, I do know that people in the area had had problems with them for a while. hopefully that won’t be the case.
Well, one thing is for sure, whatever DC Agenda becomes, its better than what DC would have had if the Blade hadn’t been replaced by it. So I say give them a chance and reserve judgment and we’ll see where it goes.
Windows Media killed the Blade. It used to be a terrific local gay paper, with lots of stories about DC life, which is interesting in its own right.
Once Windows Media usurped it, they replaced local content with their own syndicated columnists. There were more stories by writers in Atlanta than in DC. On top of that, they started gimmicks like allowing gay prostitute and Bush apologist Jeff Gannon write columns calling gays, “whining ninnies” unworthy of respect because of our whinging.
I lost interest in the Blade long ago, so any replacement paper has to go back to its local roots and not try to publish a gay version of USAToday.
So, the gay news rag had reporters, who couldn’t see they were about to be put out of a job, now being led again by the same editor who doesn’t care to know how they got there? That’s some interesting journalistic integrity.
Thanks for following our new venture, but I have to clarify something here. I did not write that paragraph attributed to me about not wanting to investigate the causes of the Blade’s demise. That was written by an op-ed contributor in our premiere issue.
In fact, the DC Agenda is investigating what happened to the Blade. There are many unanswered questions. We are journalists and will find answers. Thanks again.
The Blade should have been more supportive of the National Equality March. They deserve to be struggling.
The future is in Dallas. The Dallas Principles and our new media efforts. The LGBT Movement is now located here: http://www.EqualityAcrossAmerica Sign up and cheer up – we’re going to get our rights. Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.
Well Mr. Naff I don’t know you, just of you, and certainly I saw less of the offensive claptrap recently that the Blade had spewed at us under other Window Media “leaders.” Maybe you were making some good changes. I do hope you cover how it is possible that an entire family of our community’s publications were dragged to their execution. In your own city, a longtime activist has a helpful thought.
“Yes. William Waybourn, the former Window Media president who was responsible for much of the damage, deserves more journalistic scrutiny to hold him publicly accountable.” http://tinyurl.com/ydoqnj2
The voices of fellow publishers, reporters and activists and others seem to consistently and for years surround the business and community decisions of a certain trio. Let’s also hear from the former owners of the papers in Houston, Atlanta, and DC. How were they treated? Where do they feel their children were taken before the slaughter? Former employees from those days too. We in the community know how we were treated, even if you were trying to improve things.
This was an unbelievable week for these LGBT communities, very tragic.