What's happening with Gay Media
 

I have had a subscription to HERE, LOGO, and the Advocate for years. I am thinking of canceling every one. Quite frankly there is no originality or new 'stuff'.

HERE - $8 a month for the same tired old crap month after month. Really how much can one watch nude yoga.

LOGO - While I'll give you Rupal, the rest is Buffy reruns and the same tired movies only hacked up with censorship.

Advocate - Quite frankly a bore. Don't they realize there is a huge gay population outside of NY and LA? How about an article of say gay life in Kansas City or something. And the realization that gay people are multifacited in their politics, religion, etc. I don't even open it anymore.

Where have all the creative and interesting gay media people gone. I guess there's always Netflix and blogs.

When you say where have they gone, can you say where you felt they were in the first place?

They're probably trying to earn a living. In the case of The Advocate/Out, they're just trying to get paid. Those two publications have been running on fumes for a while, which might be indicative of gay and lesbian publications in general. If it were me, I'd work for a more mainstream company that pays me, and try to infuse my work with a gay sensibility.

I'm a member of the gay journalists association which includes print, TV, radio, etc. At the annual cocktail party last month there were several hundred people, most working for companies you've heard of. CBS, NBC, the Times, the Post, tons of mainstream companies... even Fox. I'd say that at least in NYC we're everywhere. ^

From your experience, is Advocate/Out losing subscriptions due to lack of content/quality or is the lack of subscribers dictating the lack of content/quality?

Why is it easier to find at an airport magazine store a copy of "Quilting for Peace while Stamp Collecting" or "Jugs" than a copy of Out?

Most gay men that do read are not reading papers and hard books, its the net on your Iphone. In general this is the way the print media is going but lets face it we tend to be technology chasers. I've been getting the Advocate/Out for the past two years even without a paid subscription.

With that comes smaller budgets and the inability to do bigger stories. I'd give both publications maybe another year or two at least as a print venue. Like small gay bookstores their time has passed.

well said.

I prefer the next generation of gay publications and programs such as: Details, Wallpaper, NY Times Style & Travel, Vanity Fair, and Anderson Cooper 360.

In terms of media and culture, I think gays have become part of, if not the mainstream that it renders things like Out and Advocate useless once you factor in the internets for dating, networking and porn.

I agree with Print unless they can somehow get something like an App going. In fact I spend more time with the Edge App than I do with Out.

But with HERE and LOGO, there is so much good gay content (see favorite gay film thread) why are they giving us the same dozen films over and over? It's like they have given up. Remember 3 years ago when there was big buz with Here. People were calling cable companies etc. With no innovation they have pretty much lost the buzz and I am afraid soon the networks.

Some thoughts on this. First, why even have Logo when you can see the same films on demand on streaming Netflix? I remember about the time Logo and Here started, everyone was wanting to be a filmmaker. There were lots of short films on those channels, which the channel got virtually for free. Maybe the vogue has passed? Or maybe the stuff that actually got shown didn't get enough ratings to make it worthwhile.

Second, I truly believe Logo was launched to gain the goodwill of the LGBT community more than it was to be a moneymaker. Can you imagine if they shut it down? We'd all be screaming! It's probably just easier to let it languish.