Notes from a bitch…out of sight…

I recently watched a television show that presented a year-end review of newspapers and publications that died in 2009. The segment ran through a list of well-known magazines and big daily newspapers that ceased publication and pondered the impact of that on the communities those publications served. As I watched, I noted that the reporter failed to mention the fact that lots of local community newspapers died in 2009 too. Local and regional community newspapers may not be on media critic’s radar, but they should be…and their loss may have a larger impact than people think.
Full disclosure – I used to work in marketing for the LGBT community newspaper here in St. Louis Missouri. I left a little over a year ago, while the paper was still in regular publication. The paper ceased publication a few months ago, but there are plans to resurrect it in magazine form this January.
Shall we?
When the Southern Voice and the Washington Blade, two well known LGBT newspapers, ceased publication this year it wasn’t a huge shock. After all, 2009 has been a brutal year for newspapers. Ad revenue has been cut in half and costs have gone up…those two things do not mix well. For free newspapers that survive off their ad revenue rather than subscriptions, the financial crisis has been devastating.
No, it wasn’t a huge shock, but it was disturbing and I am concerned.


LGBT community newspapers exist because the mainstream press either doesn’t cover news in the community or sensationalizes the coverage. I wish I could say that the coverage has gotten better, but it is still a struggle to get the so-called mainstream to cover LGBT news unless that news involves a political battle or high profile outing.
LGBT news focused websites just aren’t enough. They may eventually develop to replace printed newspapers, but right now they aren’t capable of covering local and regional news the way an established publication could. In many markets, online resources rely heavily on journalism from those established print publications…on information gathered by reporters on the ground that bloggers can then share.
This epidemic of closures isn’t just hitting LGBT newspapers…and my concern over the threatened closure of historic black papers and independent community papers is the same.
I wish I could believe that major daily newspapers could fill the void, but I’ve seen their recent coverage of marriage equality happenings and I’m far from convinced.
It’s been too easy to forget why these LGBT community newspapers came to be…that many were founded because daily newspapers were spreading lies and fueling hate…that television news can edit a cause out of existence…that there was a need and there still is a need for news and information about the LGBT community on a local and regional level.
I do have hope that some vehicle will emerge to deliver the community information the mainstream press doesn’t value.
That’s what happened to bring about LGBT community newspapers in the first place.
But ’tis telling that media critics are so blind to local LGBT papers that they don’t include them when lamenting the death of traditional newspapers and well known national magazines.
And it’s frustrating to know that LGBT news will still happen in the time between the death of a community print publication and the creation of some new vehicle for local and regional LGBT news…
Pause…consider…continue.
Oh yes, news will happen…and the community will struggle to find out the who/what/when and where of it.
And I worry that it’ll feel a lot like that review of dead publications that failed to mention the closure of several LGBT papers in 2009…that it’ll feel like news is really just a rumor and the rumor isn’t worthy of note.
Well, it isn’t a rumor…several LGBT newspapers ceased publication in 2009.
It happened and that happening was important and it will have an impact.
In 2010 we’re going to have to work hard to make sure out of sight does not equal out of mind.

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