The former editor of the Southern Voice has joined with the paper's original founder to begin a new gay paper in Atlanta.

The paper was shut down on November 16 along with five other LGBT newspapers and magazines owned by Window Media, including the Washington Blade, Houston Voice, David Atlanta, South Florida Blade and 411 Magazine. The company closed down three additional properties over the summer: HX Magazine, the New York Blade and monthly glossy Genre.

But while the former 18-person staff of the Washington Blade managed to churn out a new paper, DC Agenda, less than a week after being shut out of its offices, the former staff of the Atlanta-based Southern Voice is moving more cautiously.

“We know we can't really save SoVo – that name now belongs to a bankruptcy court and lienholders – but we can save SoVo's mission,” former editor Laura Douglas-Brown said in a blog post located at savesovo.com.

On Tuesday, Douglas-Brown and the paper's original founder, Chris Cash, announced the Lloyd E. Russell Foundation will give $12,000 in matching funds to the new gay paper.

The nonprofit named after the late Atlanta gay activist and businessman supports the gay community in Atlanta and the Southeast.

Cash, who founded Southern Voice in 1988 and sold the publication to Window Media in 1997, said the goal was to build a war chest large enough to weather the new company for about a year.

“We're walking this thin line of putting things in place so we can get out the door solidly but get out the door as fast as we can,” she told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “It's a tight rope that we've been walking, but I totally and completely believe that it is possible.”

Window Media's troubles began soon after they received a $39 million Small Business Administration loan that critics say was squandered on a series of misguided acquisitions. Questions, however, remain, such as why the company chose to liquidate the papers when several suitors say they were prepared to take control of the them. Chris Cash says she approached the company about buying back SoVo.

Former SoVo staff, who are owed 4 weeks' pay, have been invited to join the new publication.