08/21/2008
Advocate to Go Monthly
According to The Bay Area Reporter, The Advocate will go monthly beginning in January.
The Advocate's new editor-in-chief Jon Barrett broke the news at a luncheon at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association's LGBT Media Summit in Washington, D.C. today. Said Barrett: "I don't think there is a need for a biweekly magazine anymore with the Web. We will have more room for bigger stories and we're going to get better writers. You will see more news in the magazine."
He said other changes include a move away from entertainers on the cover and said they'll stop asking straight actors "what it's like to kiss a man." Of course, that may not stop them from volunteering such information.
The Advocate and OUT were purchased from PlanetOut by Regent Entertainment last spring.
Posted 4:19 PM EST by Andy Towle in Gay Media, Magazines, News | Permalink
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This move is intriguing and exciting to me.
The Atlantic concept is very appealing to me. I am most often embarrassed by gay media's focus on celebrities and soft-porn. When substantive issues are discussed, they are done in such a light manner that it is annoying to read.
Without getting into the "digital is better than dead trees" argument, more magazines are taking the approach of providing their content both online and in traditional format, and I think that is the logical path.
Essentially all non-academic periodicals - magazines and newspapers alike - are supported by advertising, not subscriptions. To this end, circulation numbers and/or traffic stats matter alot. Subscription fees barely cover postage. For the Advocate to be successful in either format, they need readers.
Posted by: magazine reader | Aug 22, 2008 12:50:29 AM
How 'bout you all just pick one up each month after it goes monthly, then you can decide.
Posted by: owen | Aug 22, 2008 1:02:32 AM
Luckily, the Washington Blade will still put out a weekly paper. The world isn't quite ready yet for web-exclusive news and moving to monthly will be a huge mess for those guys, I fear. It's really easy to forget about those who don't play the game.
Posted by: Ryan | Aug 22, 2008 10:08:49 AM
"hurray" to jon, and the staff for making this move. i think jon's direction is spot on. the magazine can now do the types of stories they haven't been able to do in the past due to time constraints. combined with the reporting on advocate.com they can continue to be a "voice of record" for a gay audience, while providing perspective and analysis in a monthly magazine devoted to exploring news, societal, and cultural events from a different angle. the discussion of taking the advocate to a monthly has been going on for years, not based on circ and advertising, but based on what is the best approach for the magazine to take in this new environment for print. i think the atlantic monthly comparison is apt, and another exciting magazine to look at as a possible model is bust, which is consistenly fresh and topical. i agree with owen, lets pick up a few copies of the new monthly before weighing in on why it won't work.
Posted by: dan cullinane | Aug 22, 2008 10:09:50 AM
who the hell reads advocate anyways - such a crap publication....people only get it b/c some actual waste their money on a gay.com subscription and receive it by default...
Posted by: blah | Aug 22, 2008 10:15:58 AM
No celebrities on the cover so I guess that means it'll be the latest Democrat.
It'll be like JFK Jr's failed magazine George but without the charm or pedigree.
I fully agree "connect the dots" in depth pieces don't happen much in the gay world. It tends to do only fluff and soft-porn and often not very well.
If it tries to tackle an issue, it's always the latest hot politician or liberal interest group's "facts" instead of independently gathered work. It's embarrassing.
Posted by: queendru | Aug 22, 2008 1:31:51 PM
Well, it is about time! I've been reading The Advocate for a long time. It's gone through a lot of changes--sometimes for the good; sometimes for the bad. A monthly makes sense. Maybe they can devote more time to really good reporting and, even, stop ghetto-izing themselves. If they change one thing, please let it be those celebrity interviews where it's just gay gay gay gay gay upon gay questions that really aren't relevant to the celebrity they're interviewing. It's embarrassing sometimes, painfully so, to read those interviews.
Posted by: mike | Aug 22, 2008 2:38:10 PM
Well, it is about time! I've been reading The Advocate for a long time. It's gone through a lot of changes--sometimes for the good; sometimes for the bad. A monthly makes sense. Maybe they can devote more time to really good reporting and, even, stop ghetto-izing themselves. If they change one thing, please let it be those celebrity interviews where it's just gay gay gay gay gay upon gay questions that really aren't relevant to the celebrity they're interviewing. It's embarrassing sometimes, painfully so, to read those interviews.
Posted by: mike | Aug 22, 2008 2:38:25 PM