New York Gay Newspaper Folds
By Don | July 2, 2009
The harsh advertising climate has forced one of New York City's leading gay and lesbian newspapers to lay of its staff and suspend publication.
From the New York Times
The New York Blade, one of the two major gay and lesbian newspapers in New York City, has laid off its editor in chief and suspended publication, the chief executive of its publishing company said on Wednesday.
“Everyone was let go, but the people on The Blade know that they may come back if The Blade is coming back,” said the executive, Matthew Bank, of HX Media, which was formed in 2005 by the merger of The Blade and HX Magazine.
The moves came on Tuesday after HX was sold to undisclosed buyers. The Blade, a biweekly paper with a free circulation of 22,000, was left with an uncertain future.
“It doesn’t have an issue scheduled until a week from Friday.” Mr. Bank said. “There are a lot of things that can happen between now and then.”
The decision to suspend publication comes at a particularly active period for journalism concerned with gay issues: the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the gay pride parade on Sunday, the proposed same-sex marriage bill in the State Senate and discontent over the Obama administration’s performance on gay-rights issues.
“It is an incredibly exciting time for gay journalism,” said Kat Long, who had been editor in chief of The Blade since February. “It’s important that gay papers are around to document it.”
Paul Schindler, editor in chief of Gay City News, the rival New York City gay newspaper, said The Blade had “made good contributions over the years.”
While a minority owner in HX Media has gone into receivership, Mr. Bank said that had little to do with the decision to sell the magazine.
Instead, he pointed to the advertising climate: “The economy and the future of print media being more difficult was definitely weighing on us.”
The Blade’s recent gay pride issue had been a relatively slim 28 pages.
“Gay pride is to gay publications what Christmas is to retail,” Mr. Schindler said. “When I pick up The Blade and it’s in 28 pages, then this is a business that is in serious problems.”
The Blade isn't the first and certainly won't be the last newspaper to fold, but considering the relatively high income demographic that it catered to it only underscores how deep this recession is.
Post #2154
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Did they publish articles on “how” to be a fag? Or who plays the “role” of the “rump roast”. Fags deserve nothing…period.
While I don’t approve of homosexuality and less the glorification of its seedier side, which seemed to be the intent of The Blade, I won’t call homosexuals names or insist aloud that they are going to hell: it helps no one to do so. I further suggest that one who does so may find him or herself sitting in the next bathtub of liquid fire.
While it is difficult, I suggest that it is most effective to reach out to those who have homosexual inclinations without hating the person. This article is just another in the long saga about business in America falling apart rather than a significant change for homosexuality.
WHAT ?? !!! Do you mean to tell me that they haven’t received any “stimulous” from Barney Frank ?? Well, perhaps at least not yet, anyway.
There is no way in hell anyone, including the Government will convince people to accept homosexuality. There is a reason males and females have their individual sexual organs, that is to pro-create. But then you have abortion, which was never should be used for birth control.
We are already facing OBAMAGEDDDON, which when in full effect, most likely cause a revolution. I do not think anyone would help them if that happens. Which is why obama is now going to try again to ban guns, we have the right to bear arms, but he is afraid that we have them. Good luck taking firearms out of our houses as he has proposed.
From a Politico email:
“We shall s****** your sons…. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all male clubs, in your houses of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions and do our bidding. They will be recast in our image. They will come to crave and adore us.”
Those shocking words come from a manifesto published some years back by Michael Swift, a radical gay activist.
Swift’s manifesto goes on:
“All laws banning homosexual activity will be revoked. Instead, legislation shall be passed which engenders love between men…. If you dare to cry f*****, f*****, q****, at us, we will stab you in your cowardly hearts and defile your dead, puny bodies…. There will be no compromises. We are not middle-class weaklings…. The family unit-spawning ground of lies, betrayals, mediocrity, hypocrisy and violence—will be abolished. The family unit, which only dampens imagination and curbs free will, must be eliminated…. All churches who condemn us will be closed. Our only gods are handsome young men.”
“Tremble, hetero swine, when we appear before you without our masks.”
Swift claimed the manifesto was nothing more than satire. An expression of his “inner rage”... an attempt to ridicule, through exaggeration, those who stood up in opposition to the radical-homosexual agenda.
In Swift’s own words: “This essay is an outré, madness, a tragic, cruel fantasy, an eruption of inner rage, on how the oppressed desperately dream of being the oppressor.”
But now, the United States Senate may vote within days (or even hours by the time you read this letter) on so-called “hate crimes” legislation that many are calling “The Pedophile Protection Act.”
Several weeks ago, Democrats were able to sneak HR 1913 (S. 909 in the Senate Version) through the Pelosi-controlled House of Representatives.
And before it came to the floor, Congressman Louie Gohmert tried to amend the bill to exclude a variety of sex crimes, including pedophilia, and liberals in Congress went ballistic.
According to Gohmert:
“When we tried to get the term sexual orientation narrowed down to where it didn’t include something like a pedophile… that was voted down on party lines… there are about 30 different types of sexual orientations, and they can include exhibitionism and voyeurism or things that are so offensive such as pedophilia or necrophilia. The problem is that the supporters of this bill did not want to exclude any of those and even voted down the amendment that would have excluded pedophilia.”
And now, we are hours away from passing a law that could actually make pedophiles and exhibitionists and voyeurs members of a protected class.
Gohmert gave an excellent real-world example, describing what could happen if a women retaliated against a flasher:
“The one who did the flashing committed a local misdemeanor. The one who hit with the purse singled him out because he’s an exhibitionist, and therefore she has now committed a federal hate crime and is looking at felony time.”
Everything from ““We shall s****** your sons” to “Tremble, hetero swine, when we appear before you without our masks.”
Is that not a threat to do bodily harm and threats to perform unwanted sexual acts. That my friends is grounds for a criminal action. Hope they sue the hell out of them.
July 2 at 4:25 pm | #1 | Link
So, like, who cares?