The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
Incredibly sad and surprising news for the LBGT media world, not to mention the local media scene: The Washington Blade has been shut down. The LGBT publication's twitter feed first alerted us to what was going on just a little while ago: "Washington Blade, like all Window Media publications, is closing today. Thank you for your support. (Keep following us for developments.)" Sure enough, even the Blade's web site has been taken down.
Creative Loafing Atlanta has more details on what's happened to Window Media, the publisher of the Blade as well as the Southern Voice and several other LGBT publications.
In February, the NYC-based Gay City News reported that the Avalon Equity Fund, aWe're trying to get a hold of any Blade staffers who can tell us what's going on, but no one is answering at their offices. More to come.parent companymajority shareholder in SoVo, Washington Blade and several other gay publications’ parent company Unite Media, had been forced into liquidation and faced federal receivership. People familiar with the matter recently told CL they were unaware of the company’s fate.
UPDATE: "We just found out this morning that we were shutting down completely and that we all lost our jobs," Blade staffer and DCist contributor Amy Cavanaugh tells us via email. "It's kind of crazy."
Amy said that unlike in Atlanta, where Southern Voice staffers reportedly discovered their offices were locked up today with no warning, Blade staffers got called this morning and informed that the paper was closing, and were allowed to come in and clean out their desks. They don't expect to be allowed back inside the building after today, Amy said.
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They probably could've just survived with online publications rather than having print copies available as toilet paper for the homeless.
Off-topic venting: why are some of the American Apparel advertisement look like ads for prostitution?
that's american apparel's M.O. talk to their pseudo-pedophile owner...
What do you mean "pseudo?"
I thought we got rid of those migrant-workers from the L St. side of my apt building. Now they turn up on AA advertisings? Geez! Help me Jebus!!!
I agree wholeheartedly. Those American Apparel ads are more offensive than Molly's owners. Get Sonia on the phone! Quickly!
If only Barney Frank had answered a few more prostitute ads, this whole tragedy could have been avoided.
Well, I can't say I'll miss them. For the past few years the only part of the paper I read was "Bitch Session". Metro Weekly has been giving them great competition for local coverage - not surprising since the Blade was a national corporate paper. And speaking of national news, doesn't The Advocate do a better job? The Blade died when Windows Media bought it, IMHO.
Sad to see it go, but on the other hand I haven't picked up a copy in years.
reading the notes about the staff planning to re-start up on their own gives one hope. maybe they can create a leaner, stronger paper that isn't hindered by corporate overlordship from a distant city...
2nd that motion, but I'm afraid they face an uphill battle. They're going to run into many of the same issues that the mainstream papers have with diminished advertising revenue.
That being said, I wish them luck. I'd be very proud if the DC community could find ways of helping them to make it.
At my last job, the Blade's reporting on local crime helped us identify and get rid of a prospective employee (who was temping at the time) who had a warrant out for his arrest for targeting gays for identity theft. While the Blade was sort of like a City Paper for Gays, it still kept decent tabs on local and national politics.
Janine Melnitz: You're very handy, I can tell. I bet you like to read a lot, too.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Print is dead.
Wow, yet another reminder that nothing on the web is permanent. I hope these journalists had their own archives of their clips...
THE WASHINGTON SYNDICATE
Here I was thinking that the Blade was going to need a print after party at multiple DC locations.
Way to stay classy Blade, and fuck your employees by giving them no notice.
Ditto on fucking your online advertisers by shutting down your website.
Have not lived in DC in many a year, but before everyone too quickly celebrates the loss of this paper they should take a moment and remember all "The Blade" did in the early days of the HIV epidemic - they were the primary source for information at a time when neither the Post nor anyone else would cover it. They also served as a place for reporting too many deaths, and putting names and faces on the disease. As a straight man I found it a window into a part of my community too often hidden.