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thatcrazycajunWith the 2009 Gay Pride weekend festivities only two weeks behind us here in Atlanta, today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution breaks the shocking news that Southern Voice, the weekly newspaper that for more than three decades has been the publication of record for this city's LGBTQ community, has shut down as of this week. Its owner, Window Media, was forced to stop the presses on SoVo and all of the other gay papers it owns around the nation—including the Washington Blade and New York Blade, both of which I read regularly when I lived in DC and NYC—due to financial insolvency. SoVo reporters and other employees showed up at work today to find the building locked and a sign on the door telling them to come back later for their personal effects and to discuss severance. The full story is here.
Advertising losses were apparently not the problem, unlike so many other newspapers in recent years that have been bled of ad dollars by the Internet. Ad sales were picking up after a dismal first half of the year, but the company itself was reaping the consequences of ill-advised over-expansion in buying one gay rag after another over the last decade or so.
Atlanta's queer community is far too large and vibrant to permit this sudden vacuum of news and activism for long. But until another new paper arises to take SoVo's place, or another company buys it and resumes publishing it, the community here will be without a key means of sharing information, connecting with one another and mobilizing for action...and the other cities affected will be as well. And in this tumultuous time of social change for persons of minority sexuality, it's a loss the community can emphatically not afford.
Advertising losses were apparently not the problem, unlike so many other newspapers in recent years that have been bled of ad dollars by the Internet. Ad sales were picking up after a dismal first half of the year, but the company itself was reaping the consequences of ill-advised over-expansion in buying one gay rag after another over the last decade or so.
Atlanta's queer community is far too large and vibrant to permit this sudden vacuum of news and activism for long. But until another new paper arises to take SoVo's place, or another company buys it and resumes publishing it, the community here will be without a key means of sharing information, connecting with one another and mobilizing for action...and the other cities affected will be as well. And in this tumultuous time of social change for persons of minority sexuality, it's a loss the community can emphatically not afford.
