The Advocate, the unreadable print toy belonging to accused fraudster Regent Entertainment’s sister company Here Media, which is accused of being months behind on thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices, has quietly installed a new editor of its beleaguered publication. Executive editor Matthew Breen (a former Out editor) steps into the role, replacing Jon Barrett, who oversaw the magazine folding into a pre-bundled insert; Barrett is leaving to become Entertainment Weekly‘s L.A. bureau chief. Surely this won’t mean another round of staff gutting!
Mike
It’s interesting they replaced Barrett–who seems to be taking a step down to become an EW bureau chief–with a loyal insider. Regent is definitely a place where they don’t want outsiders who will question the chaos.
Cam
Are they kidding? They are taking somebody from a gradually failing magazine and putting him in charge of a rapidly failing magazine??
SnoBunny
Why does Queerty take so much glee in seeing the destruction of one of their competitors. I hope the advocate survives because there is already a dearth of good gay news media in this country and certainly Queerty is not qualified to be the Advocates replacement, not with all of the spelling errors and the bold race games that Queerty engages in. You can report that the Advocate is having financial problems without being so bitchy, or can you?
DillonS
@SnoBunny: these other properties aren’t really competitors. Queerty is no where near the same league. The Advocate, for example, uses spell check.
No, this isn’t a professional quarrel (could the editors of Queerty even be professional?), it is something personal. Someone must have been fired/dumped/ignored at some point in their life and they are apparently holding a grudge.
Queerty if nothing more than a decent aggregator of gay news. I think few of us come here for the writing, opining (whining), or misleading titles.
SnoBunny
@DillonS: All very good points.
Right Wingers Are Socioptahs (John From England)
@DillonS:
It is personal unfortunately because they always pick on the same people, Obama or Here.
BUT saying that, Here is the issue, not the editors or writers. They need to get a new publishing team.
Though, Advocate has always being right wing-the founder was a GOP supporter, so it’s not shock that they NEVER do anything for gays and always have straights on the cover.
CJj
Queerty basically searches websites for news stories, references them, makes an opinion on them, and then lets readers whine and complain about them. The Advocate actually interviews, writes and informs. You can tell by the “user comments” on Advocate articles that they attract a more literate audience overall.
Daez
@SnoBunny: Maybe they don’t believe that a magazine that anyone actually wants to buy that tries to target a demographic that could care less about most things news related (gay or not) is going to succeed. Maybe, they feel that magazines are an out dated concept and that the internet is a much more realistic news medium. Perhaps, they have something against paying $4.50 per issue for something you can obtain freely through other mediums. All of those could be possiblities.
I think the real issue is why you bitch so much about a site you read and post on. You can comment on QT reporting on the Advocate being on a one way course to selling off their owned assets without being so bitchy, or can you?
Jamie
Any “publication” that prints Michael Lucas’ opinions is clearly headed straight down the toilet. It was, frankly, the last straw, and the world will be a better place when there’s one less outlet for that whore’s brain diarrhea.
colly
I don’t know of soul that actually reads it anymore.
Tony
I hope The Advocate survives, too.
But, the only one way that’s going to happen.
Regent/Here needs to fail. And it WILL fail sooner rather than later.
At that point, hopefully someone who knows what they’re doing. Someone who REALLY cares about it’s readers will buy The Advocate and turn it around.
But, that can never happen as long as Regent/Here exists.
Oprah
The Advocate wont survive because it is a bore. My local Barnes and Noble store does not even sell it nowadays. The only way it can work, is if they become edgy-ier. Like –Queerty for instance. 🙂
[email protected]
Jon Barrett seemed like a perfectly nice gay man with great talents who couldn’t resist carrying the torch for the Advocate.
He carried it through thick and thin in the toughest of times and actually helped make Advocate.com a really interesting web property, more so that its Out sassy sister.
His departure is whatever, haters.
But why hate on him?
Seems like a fine fellow to this fellow traveller.
Jim Hlavac
Magazines come and go, for many reasons. Look and Life are gone, Time and Newsweek are falling fast. Others have moved to the net almost exclusively. The Advocate had it’s place. It was among the first. I haven’t seen a physical copy in more than 10 years. Half or more of those I know under 30 haven’t ever even heard of it. And weirdly, as the talk of gay folks moves into the mainstream there’s not much point in the separatist gay magazine. Not to mention, that besides Queerty — there’s are dozens of gay news websites. Oh well, a business fails. Still, there’s not going to be a shortage of gay news or news about gays.
Shannon1981
The Advocate is boring. That’s why it’s failing. I am sure there are other reasons, but I can’t think of a gay magazine I’d rather read less.
David Ehrenstein
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
SnoBunny
@Daez: Do you work for Queerty or are you just their bitch?
jj
I’m not sure what all the hating on The Advocate is about. Magazines (and blogs) aren’t scholarly journals, they are what they are… Jon Barrett is a good guy, not sure where all the queerty hate came from.
meego
@Oprah: The Advocate has not been sold on newsstands in over year, you idiot. It is only available through a subscription to Out magazine.
Tony
I don’t think the hating is so much leveled at The Advocate itself, but rather at the Regent/Here Media. Even the most shallow look at the way the operate and how they treated their gay consumers, not mention their own employees, should make all of us very angry.
Joetx
@ Jaime – ITA. Once The Advocate started & continued to post Michael Lucas’ bigoted trash, I stopped reading.
The Advocate only has itself to blame for its downfall.
Ealan75
@Daez: Nope, it’s none of those things. You’d have to be blind not to see that clearly there are bitter and personal feelings toward the Advocates and its owners. And it’s a shame because there are some valid points to be made about the state of gay media, LGBT news and The Advocate, the flagship news source of the LGBT community for decades. Unfortunately any genuine analysis gets diluted by all those catty snipes from the Queerty editors.
I’ve noticed the same thing about their Ricky Martin coverage, but I figured that was just jealousy.
Ealan75
@Jim Hlavac: I do agree that it’s become a fact of life magazines come and go, but I’d hesitate to overstate the role of blogs in place of news. Sites like Queerty are great, but they only offer brief pieces of information and the sources that they link to are often oriented to mainstream society. Some gays talk about us moving into mainstream, but take a look through any mainstrea magazine and you’ll see that LGBT issues are still fringe. Even when we’re in the spotlight, we’re often viwed from a hetero angle. There is still a significant need for LGBT news. I hope the Advocate finds a way to continue to fill that need.
And for all those people predicting the death of The Advocate, its interesting to note that ppl have been sounding the death march for this magazine for several years now, yet its still here. Just sayin…
David
The problem with Queerty is that it’s unreadable. Whoever is editing and writing these articles doesn’t use spell check and doesn’t possess even the most rudimentary copy editing and fact checking skills and seem to be jealous of any publication that does.
D.C
Whoever mentioned LGBT news being so mainstream that we don’t need our own magazines is beyond deluded. LGBT issues, and LGBT period (heck the word “gay” is controversial for some) are HARDLY ever emphasized in mainstream publication. It’s perfectly fine, if not encouraged to have our own niche, have our own publications and have our own media outlets because some of us care to be connected with some sense of relatability. It means a lot to read triumphant succesful news of fellow gays, and I still can’t get that in most mainstream publications. So I applaud the success of all gay media outlets and publications because they are of importance to many of us.
Anon3
Well, Matt Breen is a hottie! They’ve got that going for them!
roger
The only time I read gay media is if it happens to appear in a search I am doing. Maybe the need exists for gay youth and those in smaller towns. Personally, I don’t see it.
Mike
I see the Regent employees have hit this blog to desperately (and quite pathetically) try to prop up their piece of shit publication and piece of shit company. How sad they’re all still drinking the Kool-Aid.
Matt Breen is a hottie, though. And he wears a size 14 shoe. Seriously. Swooooooon!
It’s too bad he’s going to sully his professional career by enabling those lying, thieving douchebags at Regent.