This cruel web: The death of the Washington Blade
The announcement came suddenly, apparently. From Washington City Paper's site this afternoon:
Just hours ago, the staff of the Blade learned that its parent company, Window Media, had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, that the Blade was closed effective immediately, and that the paper’s two dozen employees were all out of work.
Yow. A media institution and a gay institution, gone in one swoop.
It's hard to imagine who is going to survive by the time this media revolution is over. Or how.
The story mentions Lou Chibbaro Jr., the Blade’s longest-running employee, who has been there thirty freaking years. I had the pleasure of getting to know him while covering both Matthew Shepard murder trials in Laramie. Smart guy, good guy, great reporter. What is he going to do now?
I was also impressed, at the time, that The Blade flew him out to cover those trials. It was important. There was also one reporter there who had set up a freelance assignement for The Advocate--which probably would not have covered it without his setting it up, and probably would not have the cash to do it today.
That was it for the gay press. Who is going to cover these stories now?
Is there a gay press anymore? Do we still need one?
I think so. It's one of those situations where the purpose of a gay press is hopefully to help make it unnecessary. The day we are equal, we won't need a separate voice to advocate for us. I don't think we're there yet.
But that doesn't stop the audience from drifting away. I know I read the local gay rags much less than I used to. Almost never, actually. They're not very good, but that didn't stop me from flipping through before.
But now I flip through very little in paper, except for books, and I follow most of the gay stories much less because we have come a long way, and it's less a burning issue.
As a consumer, I feel less urge to partake. But my needs as a day to day consumer are very different than my needs as a member of society. I need someone out there pushing every day when I'm not, and I also need good reporting when the big stories come up and I am interested.
But most of us are no longer consuming, which leaves no revenue, no budget, and media institutions are folding.
I know a senior editor at one of the biggest, most respected pring mags in the country who left recently, because he sees their days numbered.
This situation is going to get much worse.
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Photo of former Blade employees by Darrow Montgomery
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Comments
On the one hand, we see the orgs that have folded. But those are trailing indicators. Talk to anyone in the news/reporting biz and everyone knows their job is in jeopardy. I have a zillion friends and acquaintances in this biz, and most of them go into work every morning knowing that it could be a Blade day.
What a tough way to work.
And then there is freelancing. Right. The path I took to where I am no longer exists.
The result of their cost cutting? I canceled my subscription. I live 100 miles away from the Loop. My local paper carries just as much news as the Trib, now. What's the point of subscribing to a large regional paper if there is no distinction in what is covered?
i wish we had signs of a new model. one that was anywhere near working, i mean.
all forms of writing worry me. i worry about books, too. my agent is trying to use this an incentive: Write another one while they still exist!
haha. if only she/i were joking.
of course they will "exist" in some form for awhile, and i personally don't care about the medium, as long as readers can read them easily, and there is a revenue stream to allow people like me to pay the rent.
i plan to do a whole lot of reporting for my next book, and i'm counting on some combo of books and mags paying me to support that. i am counting on the mag side of that less and less. and for most writers like me, that's the main source of income, not the minor part. damn.
Most are trying to generate revenue with online versions of their content, but it's hard to know how that's all going to shake out.
Last year, I interviewed a popular rock act for a Gannett newspaper and got paid a whopping $50. As it was a short piece and just one interview, I took the gig, but afterward I realized I shouldn't have wasted my time. Not only that, but I had to sign away my right to any compensation if Gannett used that story in any of their other media.
How are any of these companies going to generate content if they can't find a way to pay decent writers? Use college kids?
Great piece. Rated!
We're approaching the "end game" of American style capitalism, where there is little left to consume. All of the slack has been taken up. Costs have been cut, efficiencies found.
And the reality of it will become very stark over the next decade or so - falling real wages, death of industries, and a decline in average American lifestyle.
And prosperity will go to other countries, whose populations will work for less so that their people can actually produce goods (and wealth) rather than just consume them.
And gradually as this occurs, the uber-wealthy will slowly withdraw their wealth from the economic engine that is spinning down (the U.S.) and invest it in countries with emerging economies.
Newspapers closing are just one of many casualties.
Thanks for posting this (rated); and thanks to the editors for picking it and putting it on the front page.
Yes to all the hand-wringing about the state of the media, and I agree.
But The Blade was more than a media outlet, though. It was an institution in DC, and not just in the gay community. If The Blade put something front and center, it got traction. It was important in the arts scene, too, with some of the smarter reviewers around.
And it's one thing for a major media outlet to close, something else again to be shut and everyone kicked out in a single day. Does that happen to in other cases?
This is a big deal, and the fact that I had to hear about it on OS and not in the media outlets that I consume living in the DC metro area -- well that pretty much says it all.
By all reports, the Blade was a profitable entity. However, it was bought from its employee-owners by a venture capital firm. The Edge reports that the firm had $38 million in debt and the NY Times article on the closing of the Blade says that the firm had invested $7 million in Small Business Administration (SBA) debt in its publications (of which the Blade was one).
I'd suggest that the relevant comparison is the Simmons mattress company, whose bankruptcy at the hands of its venture capitalists is detailed in this NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/business/economy/05simmons.html
The news here is that a gay newspaper had achieved enough mainstream credibility that it could be ripe for the kind of vulture capitalism that characterized the past decade, at least.