Columnists :: David Foucher
On the future of gay media by David Foucher
EDGE PublisherTuesday Nov 17, 2009 I didn’t found EDGE for the money. There, I said it. Naturally, that admission won’t shock anyone in the biz; the gay media community has historically not been backed by venture capitalists, and in the two exceptions to that truism, the capitalists have beat a hasty retreat out the back door in the wake of this prolonged recession (witness the incredible devaluation of Planet Out Partners and the recent closings of the Window Media properties.) No, most of us running the queer fourth estate in this, its second age, are here for other reasons. They’re altruistic, and they speak to a need to expose LGBT injustices, stimulate conversation, provoke change and uncover truth.
Ironically, we are also the rapidly-dwindling storytellers that bear written witness to the remarkable political, social and economic progressions of our time. With every victory the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender scores, another gay newspaper folds. Every time a gay pride parade steps off, fewer gay journalists are there to offer reflection from within the community. And when a boy is beaten in middle school for being gay, his story is often not reaching enough ears to instigate the outrage that stimulates action - because in many communities, gay journalism has been supplanted with inaccurate and scattered blogs or the wild, unorganized frontiers of Facebook and Twitter, where information spreads rapidly but then passes silently into the compendium of unsearchable databanks, out of our memories the moment our news feeds report on something more timely - such as what our friends are contemplating for breakfast.
As a community, we reached two major milestones in the destruction of our press lately. With the announcements of continued layoffs at Regent resulting in the candidly-stated intent to include The Advocate with subscriptions to Out rather than a standalone publication and the abrupt closing of the Window Media newspapers in Washington, Atlanta and Florida, we’ve witnessed the deterioration of the LGBT community’s oldest magazine and arguably its newspaper of record. There are many within our populace who might predict a blog from this publisher to mask a subtle glee of the competition’s hardships behind a perfunctory and disingenuous lauding of their prior accomplishments followed by a not-so-subtle promise that where others may fall, EDGE will rise.
Not so.
The people who have lost their jobs thanks to the gay media’s continued struggle are often our friends - and our inspiration. When EDGE was founded, it was with the express intent to attempt to unite the local gay media, offering to the community a single brand through which they might explore the diverse and fascinating stories of our time. This model has been working, and not at the expense of our partner publications; in fact, every time you read one of their stories, we share our advertising revenues with them. We co-market with them, chat with them, and enjoy their company when we visit their towns. We are, in the most sincerest sense, real partners in bringing daily local news to you. For this mission, these are dangerous times.
More critically, while our political engines rev up for marriage rights and we focus on gays in the military and the fight against AIDS - critical goals for sure - a quiet devastation is dismembering our media. And it appears to be of little concern to Joe Q. (stands for Queer) Public. After all, what purpose do the Windows Media, the Bay Windows, the Bay Area Reporters and the Dallas Voices have in our lives that those ubiquitous gay blogs cannot supplant in their pithier, twittery formats?
Why, investigative journalism, of course. Because true investigative journalism is both difficult and thankless, and so it not the type of profession someone chooses out of some innate "passion." If as a community we would like to enjoy the labors of seasoned professionals who, on our behalf, ask difficult questions of both those who oppress us from without and those who profess to defend us from within, who help us understand the complex issues facing our community in the 21st century, and yes, who even review movies or discuss the latest hair styles with an LGBT slant, we need to make it possible for them to earn a living making journalism their chosen field of work. And the pittance offered by Google AdWords or the numerous Ad Networks aren’t going to cut it.
Those footing the bill until now - the local and national advertisers - have themselves cut budgets in the recession. But more importantly, they’ve been moving their dollars elsewhere; to search engines, to social networks. Yes, those ads you see when you log into Facebook aren’t just annoying. When they might have been placed in your local gay newspaper, you can rightly assume that the money being spent there - which last month might have fed a story detailing human rights abuses or reviewed the latest gay play in town - is now supporting the development of Bejeweled Blitz. And who can blame them? It’s cheaper to advertise in Google, after all, and everyone is in a financial pinch.
As the primary constituents of the gay press, we readers must comprehend that their futures are in our hands. In the wake of the Window Media announcements, I see plenty of news feeds, blogs, and comments lamenting that these valuable properties were mismanaged into extinction. And in both cases - Planet Out and Window Media - I would argue those allegations are at least partly true. But if we don’t want our fourth estate to be reduced largely to glorified puff articles about the latest borderline-flesh fest video and brainless celebrity interviews and gossip that render our writers no more than starstruck hacks in the pursuit purely of the most eyeballs, we should both demand better... and support those who deliver.
That means engaging with the media, and letting us know what you’d like to be reading. It means demanding quality management of our media properties - and calling out those individuals who abuse their positions and devalue or fail to invest in the work our community needs their companies to perform. It means urging your local businesses (especially gay businesses) to support local gay media, so that we are funneling our financial support back into our own futures.
Above all, it means one very simple thing: read. Read your local gay newspaper. Read other local gay newspapers. There’s a list of them on the bottom of every EDGE city homepage. The next time you see an ad from a gay company on Facebook, write to them and recommend that they support their local gay newspaper instead. And when you see an advertisement from a company who is, by their financial support, making gay journalism possible, thank them by clicking on or actually reading their ad. Thank them by patronizing their businesses when you can. And let them know directly that by supporting the few remaining pillars of LGBT journalism, they’re earning your support in return. All you need to do is use the simple phrase, "By the way, I saw your ad in our local gay newspaper..."
RECENT COLUMNS BY THIS WRITER
 
On the future of gay media
By David Foucher | Tuesday Nov 17, 2009
With the abrupt collapse of Window Media, the gay media has suffered another significant blow. Where will it stop?
The Oxy Con
By David Foucher | Sunday Aug 2, 2009
There’s a new con game in town: it’s called Oxycontin. It’s just as ingenious and criminal as the con games of old. And I was completely fleeced by it.
My Gay Marriage :: Forever and Always
By David Foucher | Tuesday Jul 22, 2008
I have to say that our wedding could not have been more perfect.
My Gay Marriage Day 5 :: A Medieval Bachelor Party
By David Foucher | Monday Jul 14, 2008
I think I can safely say that Kevin and I had a strange bachelor party - after all, who else in our community can claim that they partied with two hundred straight people, ate ribs off the bone, and had an audience with a monarch who politely suggested they hold off getting gay married until November 4th in hopes that their upcoming nuptuals do not push another Republican into the White House?
My Gay Marriage Day 9 :: $3000 Per Hour
By David Foucher | Thursday Jul 10, 2008
I keep joking with Kevin that for each of the five hours after our wedding begins, I’m going to poke him and remind him that we just spend another three grand. It’s kind of my way of dealing with the incredulity of a $15k party.
My Gay Marriage Day 12 :: Wake Up, Hallmark!
By David Foucher | Monday Jul 7, 2008
Twelve days out from the big moment... and the question on everyone’s mind (apparently) is this: where the $#&* does one get a same-sex wedding card?
My Gay Marriage Day 17 :: Fairytale Weddings
By David Foucher | Wednesday Jul 2, 2008
My partner has two nieces and a nephew, and their parents won’t allow them to attend his gay wedding.
My Gay Marriage Day 18 :: Marraige Accountability
By David Foucher | Monday Jun 30, 2008
In 2004, an amazing occurrence in Massachusetts revolutionized the gay marriage fight across the nation.
My Gay Marriage Day 21 :: License to Wed
By David Foucher | Friday Jun 27, 2008
Well, we ordered our wedding license today. I say "ordered" because here in Boston, you fill out forms and pay $50, and then have to return to pick up your license.
My Gay Marriage Day 22 :: What the Bible Thinks
By David Foucher | Thursday Jun 26, 2008
A few months ago a member of my family flippantly called me an atheist; nothing could be further from the truth. After all, the quiet simplicity of faith does not require evangelizing, ever; I hold that a religion that proclaims its truths to be of greater value than those of the individual (even if the individual believes in no god at all) is merely on the path to converting the weak or unthinking - not a glamorous pursuit.
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