The Advocate's new owners are as eager to change the drapes at American's only national GLBT news
magazine as President Barack Obama was about changing his at 1600
Pennsylvania Ave.
Here Media has clearly taken over the
magazine, its content and direction. And the changes are more than
mere window dressing.
Several bloggers last week took
exception to the fact that the magazine's website featured a story
concerning another Here Media property. The site headlined a story
about Beau Breedlove's forthcoming big reveal (we're optimistic) in
an upcoming issue of Unzipped, a gay porn magazine. Breedlove
achieved his 15 minutes by having sex with Portland's openly gay
mayor, Sam Adams. Adams has been fighting to remain in office since
admitting to the affair he originally dismissed as a “nasty smear.”
“A known dude's decision to show his
weeny in another gay magazine should probably not be the top story
for America's award-winning LGBT news magazine,” wrote Jeremy
Hooper on the gay activism site goodasyou.org.
Then there was the story of the big
Oscar win by Here Media-owned Regent Releasing. The Best Foreign
Film win for Departures was mentioned on the magazine's
website, but the film, whose protagonist is straight and married,
does not deal with gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender issues, the
magazine's target audience.
Other changes include a move to monthly
publication, a new editor and the addition of here! television video
content on the website.
Yet, Regent Media Executive Vice
President Stephen Macias recently said Here Media is a mere caretaker
of America's most distinct gay voice.
In an exclusive interview with
OUTTAKEOnline.com CEO Charlotte Robinson, Macias said: “I think
that with The Advocate in particular, myself I see us as
caretakers. Caretakers of the brand and the voice and the platform
that [resulted from] forty-two years of hard work.”
PlanetOut, the parent company of The
Advocate, Out, Gay.com and PlanetOut.com, agreed to be acquired
late last year after announcing it has lost nearly $100 million and
faced possible Nasdaq delisting.
Listen
to the entire audio interview at voices.OUTTAKEOnline.com