Shakeup in LGBT Media

In a recent shakeup in the LGBT publishing industry, a Florida-based company has declared bankruptcy, for the moment at least shutting down its four publications, including Frontiers magazine, a biweekly publication that focused on southern California.

On October 4, Multimedia Platforms Worldwide, or MMPW, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, stating that its estimated assets are less than $50,000 and its estimated liabilities exceed $1 million and could be as much as $10 million.

The company, the only publicly traded LGBT publishing company in the U.S., also owned Agenda, a Florida weekly; Next, a New York City weekly; and Wirld, a publisher of LGBT travel guides. The company described itself as the "world's largest LGBT media conglomerate."

At press time, the Bay Area Reporter was unable to reach MMPW for comment.

The National Gay Media Association, a trade group representing 12 LGBT publications reaching an estimated 1 million weekly newspaper and online readers, was quick to issue a statement that the MMPW bankruptcy "is related to their business decisions and does not reflect on the health of regional LGBT media," according to an email from spokeswoman Tracy Baim, who is also publisher of Chicago's Windy City Times.

Baim forwarded NGMA's prepared statement, which said, "Circulation in overall LGBT media is up more than 13 percent year over year, and advertising in LGBT media is also up in 2016. LGBT regional print media continue to be a proven way to reach the LGBT community across the U.S."

None of the MMPW properties was a member of the NGMA, the trade group pointed out.

Although the B.A.R. was unable to get any LGBT publishers to reveal their data about revenue and profitability trends, several industry executives admitted privately that LGBT local and regional publications, like all media, have been struggling to remain profitable for several decades.

In an email to the B.A.R., Baim said, "There is a new normal for LGBT media (and all media) today compared to the peak years of the 1990s. Those publications that survived are the healthy ones. Many papers, including Windy City Times , cut costs in the mid-2000s to make it through the recessions. We went to a virtual office in 2008, timed right before the crash. An accident of timing, but one that really saved us. The papers that made it through were ones who innovated early, adapting quickly to new technologies."

Todd Evans, president of Rivendell Media, a 37-year-old company that represents most LGBT publications and websites for national advertising, said that in terms of circulation, "almost all of LGBT media is free" and that the paid national publications "have not had any significant increase."

Evans could not comment on recent trends in advertising in LGBT publications because the association has "adjusted the formula" for calculating advertising revenues.

As far as trends go, Evans said, "They are still the same as in years past ... gay-specific creative has been steadily increasing except during recession years. Obviously, most print campaigns have a digital component and of course want the publications to promote via their social media.

"I think the most important thing overall is that print is still king in LGBT media in that it is the print presence that keeps the connection to the LGBT community on the street and even all the digital content stems from that," Evans added.

Problems Well Known

The financial problems at MMPW were well known in the industry after the company filed a Securities and Exchange Commission document last summer, stating "during the six months ended June 30, 2016, the company recognized net revenue of $1,459,168 and a net loss of $4,698,798 and had negative working capital of $5,518,237."

Two weeks prior to its bankruptcy filing, MMPW was sued in Massachusetts by its creditors, which led to a seizure of the all of the assets and cash on hand.

The 35-year-old Frontiers, which once had a San Francisco edition, had been in the news earlier this year after longtime news editor, Karen Ocamb, was laid off. Ocamb had been with Frontiers for 28 years.

One of the MMPW shareholders, Michael Turner, the previous owner of Frontiers, told the B.A.R. he "expects Frontiers to survive." Turner brought the publication out of bankruptcy in 2013.

In an email, he said, "Frontiers has evolved greatly over three decades and has become a multichannel media company with an audience both local and worldwide in print, mobile, online, social and events. The [bankruptcy] situation is unfortunate ..., but I fully expect that Frontiers Media will continue to be part of the fabric of southern California and the LGBT community."

Editor Fired at Evolve

In other recent LGBT publishing changes, Evolve Media, a New York City company that owns several dozen websites, fired the editor-in-chief of AfterEllen.com, a 14-year-old lesbian and queer focused website.

Trish Bendix had been with the website for 10 years, the last two managing content and editorial functions, and was the website's only editorial employee.

In a telephone interview with the B.A.R. , Bendix said that AfterEllen.com "always paid freelancers fairly," even after several budget cuts after Evolve bought the site from Viacom two years ago. Rather than cut freelancers fees, "I just took on more of the work myself," she said.

Emrah Kovacogul, general manager of TotallyHer Media, a division of Evolve, said that the latter company invested in AfterEllen.com "by creating new features, franchises, and content to grow the site and its advertising base."

"Unfortunately," said Kovacoglu in a posting on the website, "those efforts did not result in increased audience or enough advertiser support to justify continuing to invest at the same levels. Therefore, we decided we could not keep Trish Bendix on as the full time editor-in-chief."

In an email to the B.A.R., Evolve Media's president, Brian Fitzgerald, said, "We have continued to create and post new content to the site. We are actively looking for additional writers. We want to ensure AfterEllen is here for years to come. We recognize it is important place for queer women. We need their support to do that."

In a telephone interview with the B.A.R. , Bendix said that she had accepted a position as managing editor of Go, a New York City-based lesbian publication that intends to relaunch in December.