WASHINGTON BLADE and other GAY rags SHUT DOWN

• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 3:21 AM GMT

  Wow, this is really surprising. The Blade is 40 years old. What are your feelings?
  
  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/business/media/17window.html

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Aquanerd
  
  Posts: 845
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 4:10 AM GMT

  wrestlervic saidWow, this is really surprising. The Blade is 40 years old. What are your feelings?
  
  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/business/media/17window.html

  
  
  Atlanta is morning the Southern Voice, and David Atlanta. SOVO was a great paper and in 1988 was greatly needed. Atlanta was in the midst of a serial "gay basher" that had beaten up over 100 gay men mostly "pros' but the Atlanta police and AJC were ignoring.
  
  Now that Gay News is Front Page News, I think that these publication were as much a victim of their own success as much as the economy. The story is the third most read article on ajc.com.
  
  Still a sad day.

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 4:17 AM GMT

  I used to love reading that when I lived in Atlanta. Well that and Creative Loafing. I used look at it online even when I moved. Does anyone remember etc. that closed down long ago? I liked its compactness.

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 4:19 AM GMT

  I'm in Atlanta and I know how much Southern Voice and David worked with almost every GLBT charity in the area, especially by donating advertising space for benefit parties, etc. I'm worried about fundraisers for those charities now.

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Celticmusl
  
  Posts: 4330
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 4:22 AM GMT

  It's not surprising unfortunately. Even mainstream newspapers have been shutting down over the last couple of years due to the quick access of news through the internet.

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 4:32 AM GMT

  Circulation of newspapers 1990-2006 - all newspapers not just gay ones
  
  
  
  I wanted to find a graph showing a 200% increase in gay cable channels since 1990 (Logo and here!) and a bajillion% increase in gay web sites - but I was too busy surfing my favorite gay news web sites to find one...
  
  Media consumption habits are changing!

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 5:01 AM GMT

  The staffs in both cities are talking about organizing to start up new papers. My understanding is that none of the closed publications were losing money these days. They were not making enough to pay off the enormous debt accrued by the Window Media people when they went on a shopping spree.
  
  This is a good summary of the history:
  http://tinyurl.com/yfyf5cr
  
  This is more comprehensive:
  http://tinyurl.com/yecgjth

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 5:22 AM GMT

  11:00 news reports that the staff is getting together to publish a new paper. Hope this is true. Honestly, I think the Blade was a far better paper before Souther Voice bought it. Before we had good local reporting, albeit sometimes a little dull. After we still had a little local reporting, but lots of the "features" (columnists, fluff) that every gay paper in he country has. Sorry to see the Blade go, but the real Blade went a long time ago.

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 5:44 AM GMT

  My feeling about ALL print media is this: Move along to the internet already, or don't be surprised when people can't be bothered to buy your news print.
  
  Welcome to the digital age, folks.

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• silverfox
  
  Posts: 3178
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 6:25 AM GMT

  When I hear that papers like "The Blade" are folding I am amazed that our gay newspaper out of Orlando- "The Watermark" is still publishing.

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 6:40 AM GMT

  GwgTrunks saidMy feeling about ALL print media is this: Move along to the internet already, or don't be surprised when people can't be bothered to buy your news print.
  
  Welcome to the digital age, folks.

  I was wondering about this too. I know southern voice had a web version, I wonder if they could try to enhance that and keep going. It seems to work for most of the sites I look at like huffington post..

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 1:29 PM GMT

  ActiveAndFit said

  GwgTrunks saidMy feeling about ALL print media is this: Move along to the internet already, or don't be surprised when people can't be bothered to buy your news print.
  
  Welcome to the digital age, folks.

  I was wondering about this too. I know southern voice had a web version, I wonder if they could try to enhance that and keep going. It seems to work for most of the sites I look at like huffington post..

  
  
  The websites were all shut down too. Atlanta already has a new gay website doing some original reporting. It was created by Matt Hennie, a former editor of SoVo:
  
  http://www.projectqatlanta.com/
  
  I'm all for publications having robust websites, but the truth is that the medium so far does not lend itself to in-depth investigative reporting or feature stories of substance.
  
  But it's also true that the truncation of news and feature writing began well before any publications had established web presence. Americans' attention span began to shrink substantially with the advent of CNN and the 24-hour news cycle.
  
  When I made my living writing feature stories for magazines, I frequently wrote 5,000 to 7,000 words or more. That's pretty unheard of outside a few magazines now.
  
  

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 1:33 PM GMT

  silverfox1 saidWhen I hear that papers like "The Blade" are folding I am amazed that our gay newspaper out of Orlando- "The Watermark" is still publishing.

  
  
  Probably because its owners did not fund a massive expansion program with borrowed money.

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM
• Posted by a hidden member.
  Log in to view his profile
  
  
  Nov 17, 2009 2:47 PM GMT

  ObsceneWish said When I made my living writing feature stories for magazines, I frequently wrote 5,000 to 7,000 words or more. That's pretty unheard of outside a few magazines now.

  It does make me nostalgic I admit

  QUOTE REPORT SPAM