New York Blade Suspends Publication

By Julie Bolcer

The New York Blade , one of two major LGBT newspapers in New York City, has suspended publication, reports The New York Times.

Matthew Bank, the CEO of HX Media, which publishes the Blade , expressed hope that the free biweekly newspaper could still return. "It doesn't have an issue scheduled until a week from Friday," Bank told The New York Times . "There are a lot of things that can happen between now and then."

The suspension comes on the heels of news that HX magazine, a gay nightlife glossy also owned by HX Media, was sold to undisclosed buyers.

Bank attributed the problems to the advertising climate. The recent gay pride issue of the Blade was a slender 28 pages.

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Name: David Beards
Date posted: 7/4/2009 11:39:00 AM
Hometown: Sydney australia

Comment:
A message for the gay media: hegemonic homosexualites aren't the only ones in existence. Widen your scope to include the rest of us and your readership will increase.
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Name: Janice Tyle
Date posted: 7/4/2009 2:02:00 AM
Hometown: Chicago

Comment:
Matthew Bank and David Unger were know for taking all the cash that the company brought in and not paying anyone on their staff, from business to editorial staff. This is no reason to sit in judgement of Matthew Bank, Peter Hemmel, David Unger or his boyfriend Ettore Toppi, they were simply tapping into the money that the their stupid readers and advertisers were paying.
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Name: PJR
Date posted: 7/2/2009 2:36:00 PM
Hometown: Michigan

Comment:
Not surprising and certainly more to follow. The total count of gay newspapers/newsletters and other information outlets via gay oriented organizations or even gay blog entities as gay outreach is absurdly high as a percentage of population. There's simply not enough gay news to spread around between the huge number of outlets to make for any new gay news, and certainly not enough anti gay shock news of the type that attracts readership and funnels the money. Just take The Advocate reposting the same gay news articles disguised as followups and tangents. No doubt The Advocates management morning meeting went like this: "Thank goodness this PJR fella's on our comment section straightening the goofballs out, and thereby increasing our readership!" ..... Just another example of a hetero "homophobe" providing the needed helping hand! And How!
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Name: sayitlikeitis
Date posted: 7/2/2009 1:17:00 PM
Hometown: new york

Comment:
The hard working, underpaid, and under appreciated staff & contributors at NY Blade were great and they should be commended for everything they did to keep the paper going. It was the mismanagement and genuine non-caring of the owners of HX Media that ran NY Blade into the ground. The NY Blade is better off without HX Media controlling it and would be a successful paper again in the hands of someone who cares about the reporting of LGBT News more than the dish of the gay male nightlife scene.
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Name: sayitlikeitis
Date posted: 7/2/2009 1:16:00 PM
Hometown: new york

Comment:
Don't be fooled! Revenue brought in from NY Blade ad sales has never gone back into the paper. There was plenty of revenue in the gay pride issues of NY Blade just look at the advertising. There are more ads than text in the issues (24 ad pages versus 6 of news) many of which are national advertising that brings in big money including Home Depot, Pepsi, Harrahs, Bristol-Myers Squibb, KY along with local big bucks from Bloomberg, The Met, Lincoln Center, and Real Estate. The NY Blade was a "slender 28 pages" because those revenues did not go back into printing NY Blade but instead went to pay for printing HX Magazine which is the less important publication but the more glorified by HX Media then HX Media probably paid the CEO & Publisher, then some of their many outstanding debts including the employee back salaries they owe.

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