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, a parent company majority 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.

We’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.

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.