Recession and Financial Mismanagement May Claim Distinguished LGBT Newspapers

11/16/09-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Flag_of_Atlanta,_Georgia Southern Voice and David Atlanta have both shut their doors as the downturn in the news media’s economy strikes the smaller, minority directed newspapers hardest. The Washington Blade’s site has slowed to a crawl as the financial issues of Unite Media and Window Media begin to affect the operations of the various newspapers and magazines. In July, David Unger, the head of Window Media stepped down for a job in the financial sector.

The parent company of Window Media, Avalon Equity Partners, is heavily in debt. They received some $35 million in loans from the Small Business Administration, but did not maintain to the required amount of outside capital flowing into their business for the loans to be considered valid. The business is in receivership with the SBA which has the right to sell off its assets in order to recoup the loans that were paid to Avalon Equity.

The Georgia Based free newspaper Creative Loafing is reporting that the doors at Southern Voice were locked and a message informing their employees to come back on Wednesday to get their personal belongings and their severance package would be discussed at that time. People logging into The Washington Blade, Southern Voice, David Atlanta and other Avalon Equity Partners publications today found it difficult with long load times. The sites themselves finally came back online.

Window Media owned some of the oldest and most professional LGBT newspapers in the United States. The Washington Blade has been in operation for thirty-five years and has been the newspaper of record for the Community for some time.

There is, as yet, no word on what the impact of the loss of SOVO will have on The Washington Blade, or what their twenty employees will do in the future. Many of them were part of the fight to get LGBT rights passed in this country. The closing of the newspaper is a blow to the Atlanta LGBT Community. Their reporters were often seen in the midst of several of Atlanta’s biggest news stories.

The news came as a shock to SOVO editor Laura Douglas-Brown, who recently was informed about the probable sale of the paper. “No one was in it just for the job. Everybody was in it for the cause too, in their own ways. People have put up with a lot difficulties over the past year, and have hung in there because they cared. It’s tragic and I’m desperately sorry it ended this way, especially for the people who’ve worked so hard. [The closure] didn’t happen because of a lack of need for our publications. It didn’t happen because of a lack of hard dedicated work by local staff. And that’s the shame of it…It’s a sad tale, how it all came crashing down,” she told Creative Loafing.

Statements confirming the closure were posted on SOVO’s Facebook page, but no similar comment was forthcoming on any of the other related newspapers.

As of 10:30 am, The Washington Blade has not been affected by the shutdown.