PHOTO: after going out of business, Portland, Oregon's longtime gay newspaper came back to life with the June 2012 issue of "Just Out" in a glossy magazine format. (See JO Editor, "Just Out Hits the Stands," justout.com blog posted on May 31, 2012 ) and see previous post Just Out is back June 2012 (6/2/12), where I note, "Reports of the death of gay newspapers due to the internet have been greatly exaggerated."
Gay newspapers were critically important to the gay rights movement of the twentieth-century, because around the time of the 1969 Stonewall riot, nearly all publications avoided any mention of homosexuality for the legitimate fear of being ostracized or in some cases legally censored by a court of law for publishing obscene subject matter -- U.S. Supreme Court decisions that are still in effect today say "obscene material" is not protected by the Free Speech Rights granted to citizens by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Fortunately, several other landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions allowed gay newspapers to publish serious articles concerning gay politics, science and medicine, provided they were not "lacking of any socially redeeming purpose."
In the early 1970's, decades before the Internet and the World Wide Web were invented, my first experience with gay newspapers came when my University of Minnesota dormitory Resident Assistant or RA, who happened to be gay, showed me where gay newspapers were sold in a large magazine store in downtown Minneapolis. This is where I first saw the New York City "Gay" newspaper, which was published by the famous activists Jack Nichols and Lige Clark. It is also where I bought my first copy of "The Advocate" newspaper, from Los Angeles, which helped organize gay people across America and it is still being published today as a glossy magazine and an online Web site.
When I was a poor college student in 1973, I was able to scrape together enough money for a subscription to "The Advocate" newspaper, which as a standard practice at the time was mailed to my dorm room in a "plain brown envelope" to avoid censorship or harassment of the recipients, who were often not fully out of the closet.
Yes, it had serious articles about gay politics and science, but the section everybody actually read was "the Advocate Classified" ads, which were printed in a separate pull out section so that you could show the serious articles to your mother. (This section was later printed as a separate glossy magazine, which allowed it to publish more risque color advertisements for gay 8mm movie films, later xxx-rated video tapes or DVD films, and also sex workers who technically were advertising illegal services.)
The reason the classified ad section of "The Advocate" newspaper was so popular in the 1970's was because it included classified ads from real people across America who were seeking pen pals or contact with other gay people in their hometown. Similar ads in local gay newspapers were also a major source of revenue for thier publishers. Today, internet social media sites, such as Facebook, have replaced the need for this function.
Until the invention of the World Wide Web in the early 1990's, I still received, in a plain-brown envelope, the printed copies of the Portland, Oregon gay newspaper, "Just Out." (It later became PQ or Proud Queer Monthly). When "Just Out" started posting their articles and a PDF copy of the printed paper online, I started reading it mostly online because it was a hassle to pick up a printed copy in cities distant from Corvallis. Consequently, I was not overly surprised by the publisher's announcement that PQ would no longer be available in a printed form and available only online in the cloud:
"Brilliant Media LLC is excited to announce that Proud Queer Monthly and El Hispanic News will both be fully transitioning to web as of November 2017. El Hispanic News has been printed and distributed in the Pacific Northwest since 1981, and Proud Queer Monthly was added to the Brilliant Media family in 2012.
"We are proud of our legacy in the world of printed media, and it is with great affection and respect that we say goodbye to our print run; but, like many other publications in today's media climate, we have decided the time has come to prioritize the vast opportunities digital content offers over the tradition of ink and paper. . . ."
(Quoted from Staff, "Brilliant Media Announces Digital Transition," PQ Monthly posted Dec. 7, 2017)
I vividly recall how after the World Wide Web was invented in the early 1990's that the dream was to go all paperless with print publications. However, since then I have seen the dream shift to a more nuanced one, where the printed newspaper and magazine formats are still used, but to publish only the material that can take advantage of each type of media -- paper or the cloud. In fact PQ as part of their going digital plan announced it will still be publishing paper books with their best content.
I was also amused to read about the electrical engineering college background of the owner of Portland's gay newspaper, because it explains why I have always loved her logical analysis of things:
"Owner Melanie Davis talks about the history and future of Brilliant Media LLC -- as Proud Queer makes its transition to web: When I moved to Portland, Oregon in 1992 from Albuquerque, New Mexico to attend Portland State University, my objective was clear-secure a job and get my electrical engineering degree. While searching for a job I distinctly recall my grandmother Clara Padilla Andrews (former Secretary of State of New Mexico), who had moved here with my grandfather after her term ended, sharing with me that a local bilingual newspaper called El Hispanic News needed a sales person. I connected with Juan Pratts who founded the publication in 1981, and he hired me on the spot.
"Back then, we were printing black and white with few pages in a tabloid format. It was Juan's goal to grow into a four-color broadsheet printing format, because in his words, "then our community will be taken seriously." Back then industry dictated who was a "real newspaper" . . .
"For some years El Hispanic News produced and published the "Official Pride Guide" for (gay) Pride NW, making sure to include in our marketing budget funds to insert the Pride Guide into other racially diverse publications like The Asian Reporter and The Portland Observer. This made the Pride Guide wildly successful, and many mainstream Portland publications are still vying each year to outbid each other to produce the "Official Pride Guide" for Pride NW. . . and took the opportunity to launch PQ (Proud Queer) Monthly, a publication whose mission is to ensure "Every Letter & Every Color is Represented," in February of 2012. . . .
"I am thrilled to say that with the support of our readers and advertisers, effective immediately El Hispanic News, PQ (Proud Queer), and Tankside will be 100% digital. Secondly, we are also happy to announce we are in the process of publishing annual books that will reflect each media outlet's best content. Each book published will have a revenue sharing model built into it that will directly benefit each contributor. As you all know, I am a firm believer that the road to equality is equity!"
(Quoted from Melanie Davis, Owner, Brilliant Media LLC, "From the Owner," pqmonthly.com posted Thursday, December 7, ?2017)
