Comments on: Zack' Ramblings: Gay Media Is Dead. Long Live Gay Media.

By: Chase

Chase — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:00:59 +0000

Now if only International Male would go out of business!

By: James

James — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:29:37 +0000

I would rather see a smaller paper than one with so much not GLBT coverage. There are numerous media out there covering culture including Metro Weekly and City Paper. The Blade was once a great newspaper and any new effort needs to move back in that direction. When it started it was more about the local community but somewhere along the way they lost their compass and seemed to let their ego’s take control become more interesting in having a national status. This caused many people, especially younger GLBT individuals not to see it as their paper as they unfortunately have less interest in the political side of events. Too many young people and minorities do not feel their issues are adequately covered at the local level. Reading the Blade one could get a lot of political news and opinions and learn about the clubs but less about the local community. Hopefully a new paper will stop being lazy and wasting space on a Birth Section just because it takes little work and cost little.

By: adam

adam — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:07:57 +0000

rip bitch session.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:39:52 +0000

Damn now I can’t get all that compelling news on circuit parties, interviews with drag queens and Q&A with underwear models.

By: MarkDC

MarkDC — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:12:15 +0000

Darn where will I find Bitch Session now? Oh, right. Just go to [insert name of bar here].

RIP Bitch Session.

By: Jose

Jose — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:19:50 +0000

I am just upset that I now have to find a new way to advertise my escort services, fuck.

By: Stas

Stas — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:08:06 +0000

The Blade hadn’t been a local paper in ages. I hate to say it but it came off as very lazy. They would just run the same stories that every other paper owned by Windows media ran. Sure they might do a story on DC if it took place no more than 3 blocks away from their offices, but not if it conflicted with some story pasted from Southern Voice. I really will miss the Blad for the paper it used to be, but I’ve been missing that for like 10 years now. Metro Weekly, Baltimore Out Loud and Baltimore Gay Life took up the Local reporting and replaced the Blade a long time ago.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:27:08 +0000

I remember when the Blade was good. While I'm sure a few of their most recent writers were still good, the paper as a whole had become irrelevant under the aegis of it's corporate owners. While it was going downhill, Metro Weekly was improving its local coverage. As for national news, The Advocate while not stellar, still suffices. I've heard rumors they want to restart the Blade. I hope that if they do, they restore the integrity of local ownership and reporting, and include writing on a diversity of cultural and scene topics, and not only the narrow focus on circuit queens.

By: JMan

JMan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:15:57 +0000

Harsh but true. And we’re talking about a newspaper here, those things that were supposed to be in the business of giving us the unvarnished truth. A business implosion that hurts the community is no time for mawkish poetry.

The Blade under it’s original owners was staid but substantive. It mattered. Then along came three guys, Waybourn, Crain, Unger, who were basically poster boys for the insular mindset Zack describes: one much older white gentleman who wanted a big salary and bragging rights and part-time dithering with an art gallery, his middle-aged white conservative circuit party cohort, and funded by a recently-out white man of means who dabbled in producing shows in NY.

Hello. Any surprise these guys actually believed that Jeff Gannon–a white conservative former escort who sneered at regular gays and wouldn’t say whether he was himself–had something to say to the rest of us as an editorial columnist? Any wonder we started seeing more Rosie and advice on how to go shopping at the expense of covering the changes (and threats) in our community?

And it was all run like an admiring wannabe mini version of the bigger corporate bubbles: debt, acquire, more debt, more acquire.

Like the bigger party, it too was bound to fall in on itself. And it took some hard working people, and the community’s need for info as ammo, along with it.

By: Why the LGBT Press Matters? « The NLGJA Blog

Why the LGBT Press Matters? « The NLGJA Blog — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:17:30 +0000

[...] idea was reinforced in an oddly axe-grinding post by former Blade writer Zack Rosen at The New Gay. Rosen complained about the Blade’s culture [...]

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:46:46 +0000

Tacky. You don’t dance on the grave so soon.

By: chrisafer

chrisafer — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:02:51 +0000

The Blade may not have been perfect, but its history is something to be admired. Be careful dancing on its ashes so soon, Zack. You might burn your feet.