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.
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HellsKitchenGuy
Poor Advocate – that is all I can say. When Here TV assumes the operating liabilities and assets, including the predicted 5+ million dollar loss each year for the next several years – our beloved Advocate will be lost. How dumb for an entertainment company that no one pays attention to – taking over such a gay icon. Sad day for the gay community.
workedoutLA
This is great news because it gives we who work at OUT a bit more time to find a job. Suckers!
Diana
Another gay entity destroyed by greed.
hambone
It’s a sadder day, all the negativity about The Advocate – why don’t you try and support all of the passionate and skilled men and women who work there rather than spread endless rumors of its closing? That helps no-one. Why not say that it’s good news that a sale happened at all, and to a gay owner, who clearly is fully aware of the implications of the purchase. Would it kill you to support The Advocate instead of moaning all the time?
hells kitchen guy
Sounds like great news to me. Regent is a stable company and will put some much needed resources into the product. Why the hating on this site?
Soooooobusted
How can it be good news for a group that knows nothing about publishing to take over a magazine? They are just postponing the bankruptcy
sorry
Hambone you are right we need to celebrate a great magazine and hope that a network can run the magazine. If they centralized all the jobs in their NY offices they could make this work
Johnny
It’s always a good day when gay media lives to tell the tale. Out and The Advocate deserve owners who will show them the love.
hells kitchen guy
“How can it be good news for a group that knows nothing about publishing to take over a magazine?”
Well, let’s see: Murdoch buys Wall Street Journal
Warner Bros. buys Time Inc.
KKR buys New York Magazine
Jared Kushner buys NYObserver
You want me to go on? This is hardly something new – or necessarily a disaster. It’s A BUSINESS, not a magazine – and they’re going to run it that way. That’s a good thing.
Hisurfer
PlanetOut Inc. agreed to try to save its magazine and book publishing business to Here Networks for $6 million in cash.
In February, PlanetOut reported a $51.2 million loss for 2007. The company’s accumulated deficit on Dec. 31, 2007 was about $89.5 million. Here will try to take on that debt or claim bankruptcy.
As part of a private placement in July 2007, through which PlanetOut raised $24 million after fees, the company was obliged to try and sell off what it calls “our adult businesses,” but it has so far not even gotten a nibble and is unable to sell them. The company needs more money, but said in a March regulatory filing that “raising additional financing will be very difficult, if it could be obtained at all,” we are bleeding money and are going to have to close the magazines.
The company had 237 employees at the end of 2007. The company will be closing its New York and LA office, leaving many employees out of work. Here agrees that loss of jobs is part of the business.
mentor
I heard that I am now out of a job
SoCalif
From what I’ve heard from the PlanetOut staffers I know in L.A. and NYC, no one has lost their jobs yet and most aren’t expected to when the deal is done in August.
SoCalif
Hisurfer, you posted the exact same post on Towelroad, but you never said where you got your info about closing offices. Did you mean the PlanetOut offices?
Out N Proud
If a company that is losing 6 Million A year doing business a certain way, how would they be able to maintain the status quo and be expected to magically turn things around? The printing costs will cut drastically, the quality will be compromised and all of the top jobs will be trimmed by 75% and the competent Here Network team will absorb all those leadership positions. NY & LA will close and a handful of jobs will be moved to San Fran. The top Here team staff are already applying for the print jobs internally. The magazine will become program guides in essence for the network programming and the internal workings will become a blood bath.
RJ
Who says Regent is really a stable company. Who really subscribes to Here TV anyway?