Years ago during the Clinton administration I visited Washington, D.C., and not knowing what it was, I picked up a copy of the Washington Blade near a Metro station. I don’t recall much of what was in that week’s edition, but I remember being impressed with the paper’s coverage of the issues important to gays and lesbians; it seemed accessible even to straight people.
On Monday, the Blade and several other gay newspapers were shut down after the Small Business Administration, which had put them in receivership, was unable to sell them.
“We found out when two of the corporate officers were waiting for us when we got to work this morning,” Kevin Naff, editor of The Blade, told the New York Times. “It’s not a complete surprise. The abruptness of it was what was surprising.”
An early indication of trouble came over Twitter around noon: “Washington Blade, like all Window Media publications, is closing today. Thank you for your support.” Staff who showed up for work Monday were met by corporate executives who directed them to clean out their offices by 3:30 p.m.
Window Media and United Media, which owned the network which has been likened to a “gay A.P.,” filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Monday. Companies which file for Chapter 7 must immediately cease operations.
The companies, in turn, were owned by Avalon Equity Funding, which had borrowed $38 million from the Small Business Administration. The terms of that loan agreement required the company to hold capital equal to half of the loan balance, which the SBA said the company failed to do. Gay City News reported last February that the SBA had filed a lawsuit forcing Avalon into receivership.
A brief statement from the SBA said: “The SBA as receiver for Avalon does not anticipate any recovery on Avalon’s investment totaling more than $7 million in Window/Unite Media.”
As part of the receivership, SBA was supposed to try to sell the papers, but failed to find a “qualified” buyer. It’s not clear whether SBA actually tried; Tom Morris, director of SBA’s Office of Liquidation, told Gay City News that SBA would not disclose what assets were for sale unless they were actually sold.
That sounds a bit backward to me; knowing something is for sale is, after all, a natural prerequisite for purchasing it.
The Blade, a weekly published each Friday, had a print circulation of 33,000 and about 500,000 monthly web visitors.
Also closed Monday were The Houston Voice, The South Florida Blade, The Southern Voice, David Atlanta and 411 Magazine.
Naff said he is meeting with former Blade employees Tuesday to discuss starting a new paper. The paper had been criticized for selling out in 2001; it had “become a homogenized product that reflects the triumph of corporate synergy over hard-news content.”
“The Blade was a community-based newspaper, and Window Media moved it away from that community base,” former photo editor Clint Steib told the Washington City Paper in 2002. “They’re going into local gay communities and buying up all the papers, and it’s sad, because the quality has gone way down. The Blade was very well-respected in both gay and mainstream media, and you just can’t say that anymore.”
Blade staffers will meet readers at “one last hurrah” at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Hard Rock Cafe, 999 E St. N.W.
If you own a business, no matter how much you’re struggling, your first rule should be: never, ever take money from the government. Doing any sort of deal with the government is a bad idea, doubly so for the press; the government sets all the rules and can change them on a whim.
Your second rule should be: Be extremely wary of selling out. The 2001 sale of the Blade to Window Media was the beginning of the end. Staffers say that the paper would likely have been profitable if it had still been independent today, but that “corporate” too often had trouble meeting payroll on time.
Break these rules and you too could wind up like the Washington Blade and the other important voices which have been silenced this day. Here’s hoping that these voices can find ways to return to publication.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Tropical WeatherLast week, in the wake of another uptick in the official unemployment rate, the administration continued to claim that their economic policies were working, just not fast enough. Not only does the administration have a funny way of ending a war, but now they claim their economic policies are successful. For whom, I wonder?
Gardner Goldsmith teams up with Brett Veinotte, of the excellent School Sucks Project and the School Sucks podcast. Gard and Brett discuss the impetus of the series and project, and why public education must be stopped.
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Bob
Nov 17, 2009
When I was a kid we had a board game. Don’t remember what it was called, but it had a hockey theme.
There were players on cards with their own unique stats that we traded back and forth or bought for our team, and then there was a spinner or pair of dice that we used to combine with the stats to play games.
The players had funny names. I only remember a few of them. One looked like an Eskimo and was called Puk Luk. One was called Gay Blade. I think he wore make up and figure skates but he had a wicked slapshot or something.
The words “Gay” and “Blade” above brought it all back.
That’s all I got for this story.
Britton Jones
Nov 19, 2009
Interesting website… looking at all the postings… I wonder how you have the time…
Here is an issue that you might want to write on… I have been trying to get the governor’s office of our state (Oregon) interested in the issue. It centers on prerequisite class requirements for programs within the state. This problem seems to be nationwide and is a tool used to jack up the cost of schooling in the various states. With students in California protesting over the cost of schooling going up 32 percent at the University’s in California (UC’s) this obviously a problem that is gathering momentum. To illustrate the specific problem, here is an example.
My daughter Holly (Not her real name) determined that she wanted to go to nursing school. She did some checking and found that Chemeketa Junior College in Salem Oregon had the best program in the State. Even though she was coming in from out of the area, she wanted to go to the best; so she enrolled and struck out to achieve the prereq’s required under the CJC’s Nursing program. The CJC program required that she achieve a 3.7 grade point average or better during the 2 years it would take to fulfill the requirement. She did that coming in at 3.87. However when program enrollment came up, she applied and found that since she was coming in from out of the area, she would be penalized 5 points. The program is quite popular and she couldn’t get in that year but did make an alternates list. Although they did select from the alternates list they didn’t reach her. So now the dilemma. She has obtained a deferral from having to pay on the school loans as long as she is in school. Does she stay and wait for the following year or does she look at other colleges in the area (within one hour) who actually have openings in their programs. She elects to try and get into one of the other programs but upon researching the issue, she learns that every state sponsored program has different prereq’s incorporated into the program. Holly starts in obtaining the classes to get into our own local Linn-Benton Community College (Albany Oregon) program… generating more costs in classroom tuition, books, traveling and more school loans. However, while she is trying to obtain all the new prereqs for this program, they open up the nursing program for applicants. Holly can’t apply and will have to wait a year to be considered for this 2nd program. She finishes the prereq’s and faces another dilemma. Does she wait again for either of these two programs to reopen, or does she investigate additional prereq requirements for a third program. Which would again mean incurring more costs… tuition’s, books etc…
Her research showed that there are programs around the state with openings but this time she decides to get a job to pay the payments on the loans and wait it out. She discusses with me whether she should consider another career.
3 years from the date of her completing the original prereq’s with a good grade point average she is invited into the original Chemekata program mainly because the program removes the out of district penalty after the third application.
It seems sad that because of the arrogance of the academic community in setting prereqs for these programs we challenge and penalize our young men and women for daring to apply to the better programs and when there isn’t enough room, we again hit them in the pocket book and place barriers in front of them to obtain an education in a high demand occupation.
It would seem that at the State level, there could be some kind of consensus to make all the Prereqs the same and allow the academics to set the grade point standards only.
Naturally, and I want to stress this. Once the students are accepted into the specific programs the teachers should be allowed to control the actual practical training programs. It is only the prereqs that I wish to standardize to lower the costs and reduce the amount of time that we take to turn out good quality nurses and reduce the frustration our students face as well as the costs incurred.
There is a corresponding issue that jacks up the costs of our programs, and that is concerning the costs of books. Books that are used in Prereq classes need to be standardized. One student took a chem class and paid $187.00 for the books. She took the class over to raise her grade point average and found that the Teacher called out a new set of books… The cost $470.00. Absolutely unacceptable. The cost of Books amongst the schools are driven up because sometimes the books selected are only acceptable at that college. Naturally it makes sense that if we standardize the texts, we will drive down costs simply due to the quatities ordered from publishers. Respective politicians need to become the catalysts for calling the schools together and standardizing prereqs and the texts to be used. Keep in mind that I again am talking about Prereq’s only.
So there you have it… a fathers frustration and tail of whoa in watching his daughter deal with a disjointed system of education. It would seem that with the demand so high in these particular fields, we would want our schools to turn out good quality nurses as fast and inexpensive as possible and to do that it only requires that someone bring the factions together to sit down and draw a consensus on required Prereq’s and texts used. Likewise the faster we can move these students into the Job market, the faster they become contributing tax payers that help the schools out down line.
But one must wonder what teachers and academics are doing within the bounds of other programs like Engineering , CAD, Computer, Automotive, Machinist, Police, Fireman and other programs. Could they likewise be standardized to limit costs and frustration for students.
Britton Jones
Scio, Oregon
Michael Hampton
Nov 19, 2009
While it’s utterly off-topic here, I will comment briefly.
I think the most important prerequisite, the one that was never disclosed, is the ability to navigate through a complex and often senseless bureaucracy while accepting the inevitable absurdities as normal and even necessary. Perhaps it’s meant to weed out people who think it could be improved and might actually have ideas to do just that.
If I get the right story, I’ll write on the absurdities of college at some point.