What Happened To AOL’s Gay Blog?
America Online charted new queer territory earlier this year when it unveiled its LGBT blog, QueerSighted. The gamble paid off, indeed, with over 3.5 million page views a month and the potential for endless advertising revenue. Then, about six months later, that dream died – or, rather, was killed, when AOL canned editor Kenneth Hill and told the other homo-journos to start packing.
Now, one former member of the collective’s raising some not-so-rhetorical questions. Writes Richard Rothstein:
And, at the end of the day, I suppose we can’t accuse AOL of homophobia or politics. After all, Mary Cheney remains a vice president at AOL and she, as we all know, is a staunch supporter of the queer community, our rights and our voice. And just because a number of AOL’s openly homophobic and conservative right wing bloggers remain employed and blogging doesn’t mean that the termination of large numbers of senior gay employees means anything.
Rothstein also alleges that AOL attempted to silence the site’s former writers. Obviously it didn’t work.
So Richard Rothstein got fucked over by AOL…big surprise there. Also, does anybody really miss Queersighted (yawn)? Still, let’s hope he and his cohorts don’t make the same mistake again.
i saw that they hadn’t updated in forever but i didn’t know that the blog had been officially canned let alone the politics behind it. it’s unfortunate. the writing may not have always been illuminating but it was usually fun and i quite enjoyed catching up every couple days. oh well, there’s plenty of us gay bloggers out there. we certainly don’t have to work for aol…
Thanks for noticing the temporarily neglected state of Queersighted! I know this transition period is disappointing to regular readers, and everyone here is eager to resume the Queersighted mission. Queersighted is an important and valued site to everyone at AOL. The good news is that Queersighted will return as a member of the Weblogs, Inc. network (still part of AOL), where it will enjoy more exposure and opportunity than ever before. Give us a little time to regroup and polish up, and stay tuned for announcements in the very near future. Queersighted is an important and valued site to everyone at AOL.
With apologies for the disruption, and with eagerness for the good things to come,
Brad Hill
Programming Director, Weblogs Inc. (AOL)
Boy, this is some high-class site