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.