Comments on: Atlanta, D.C. gay pubs cease operation

By: beachcomberT

beachcomberT — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:53:10 +0000

As a print media veteran who took a buyout from a newspaper last year, I sympathize with the displaced employees. Sad, but not surprising, that the publisher gave them no notice. Incidentally, that action may violate the government’s W.A.R.N. Act — I hope the Labor Department investigates. The closings amount to a double whammy for the LGBT community. Mainsteam print media are cutting back on staff and news pages, and gay coverage is one of the first “frills” to be sacrificed. Struggling corporations with tight ad budgets probably are reducing their feel-good diversity ad campaigns as well. That means LGBT journalism increasingly will revert to a volunteer effort, one that’s very hit-or-miss. Some of it will be excellent, and blogs will help fill some of the gap, but overall there will be fewer reliable watchdogs to challenge the prejudice and inequality we face. We also need professional media to track our own movement, to root out the deals that our own advocates, so-called, are striking with government officials and corporations. If the surviving shred of journalism degrades into just headlines about Levi Johnston’s new porn career, we will have entertainment, but nothing we can honestly call news.

By: Morgan Painter

Morgan Painter — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:14:32 +0000

Perhaps I am an oddity. I am not pro-gay nor anti-gay, I see them as people first. I myself am hetero, but have friends and family who are gay and care for them as much as I do for any family. Woe be unto anyone who harms one of my gay family.

I feel the closing is perhaps a sad event. In addition to the lost jobs, consider people with the gay mindset. These publications may have given them emotional support. I am sure it will be missed by them.

This might indicate to the anti-gay of America there are too few gay people to support a publication and keep it in circulation. I guess the jury is still out on that issue.

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:52:35 +0000

Well look at this. Some good news in the news after all. Maybe a few more of these nasty newspapers will go bankrupt.

By: David Alex Nahmod

David Alex Nahmod — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:24:16 +0000

Sad.
But not that unexpected. I wrote for their Florida paper for about two years and it was not a well run place.
The Florida paper had a superb editor~~he was fired and replaced by a reality TV star who had no business running a newspaper.
I left two weeks after that.

Thank God we still have publications like Q Notes and
Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco.