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Story Updated : November 16, 2009 08:15:00 PM

Washington Blade Closes


WINDOWS MEDIA X390 (FAIR USE) | ADVOCATE.COM

As news unfolded Monday that Window Media had filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy and publications including the flagship Washington Blade would be liquidated, former staff members vowed to reemerge in independent form, while they expressed concern for the fate of the venerable newspaper's historical archives.

“I’m worried,” said Kevin Naff, the former editor of the Blade, on Monday afternoon, hours after he retrieved his belongings from the office in the National Press Club building. “There are 40 years of people’s work in there. It’s one-of-a kind stuff, images of protests, in filing cabinet after filing cabinet.”

Naff served as editor from 2006 until Monday morning around 8 a.m., when Window Media executives Mike Kitchens and Steve Myers appeared at the office to notify him of the bankruptcy. Staff members, who numbered around 21, were directed to collect their personal items by 3:30 p.m. that afternoon.

The future of the archives, mostly old newspaper issues and photos documenting 40 years of the LGBT movement since Stonewall, remained unclear, and potentially perilous.

“I asked that question of Steve and Mike and was told the archive is now owned by the bankruptcy court and the trustee of the court will decide what to do with it,” said Naff. “Will they decide to put it in a landfill? Or maybe make their best effort to find a buyer?”

Naff said he believed the items were still in the National Press Club building as of late Monday afternoon. Neither Kitchens nor Myers responded to requests for comment.

Window Media and sibling entity Unite Media published several gay and lesbian newspapers including the Blade, the Houston Voice, South Florida Blade, David Atlanta, The 411 Magazine, and Atlanta’s Southern Voice. All were shuttered on Monday morning, the result of escalating financial distress first disclosed publicly in February.

Back then, Gay City News reported that the U.S. Small Business Administration had placed Avalon Equity Fund, the owner of Window Media and Unite Media, in receivership. A court filing from August 2008 showed that Avalon failed to maintain the level of capital required by its contract with SBA, the agency from which Avalon had borrowed $39 million for investments in LGBT media properties and other ventures since 2000.

"The fuse on Avalon was there," said Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck-Combs Communications, a D.C.-based firm specializing in the LGBT market, on Monday afternoon. "They never had any illusions that they had to solve that. The money still had to be found."

While the closure of the Blade did not surprise most insiders, many, including Naff, were startled by how abruptly it unfolded on Monday.

“I guess I assumed there would be a chapter 11 and through that process we would find a way to restructure and merge,” said Naff. Instead, there was no reprieve.

"They let us know that everyone had been terminated," said Chris Johnson, a former news reporter for the Blade, speaking from his home Monday afternoon. "I was told the company had filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy."

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Werner
    Date posted: 11/21/2009 9:21:16 AM
    Hometown: Washington D.C.

    Comment:

    I am a gay activist and this is wonderful news. Let this be a warning to The Advocate that when a publication becomes more grim than gay, it loses readership. Gay rights isn't about which sell- out political hack appoints which careerist as a tool to calm the anger of the homosexual community. Gay rights is more about the streets than Democratic Party meetings. The tired, prudish Blade is gone. Good. I don't need to read anymore why it is important to work to elect so called pro gay politicians like Obama or Clinton. I don't need to pretend to be Miss Prudence Nosex in order to "appeal" to conservatives so we will "win". The Blade bites the dust- I hope the grave is big enough for The Advocate to join it. Your story actually supporting Fred Phelps when he was denied entry into the UK to spread his anti-Gay hate shows where you are really at.

  • Name: J. Phillip Riggin
    Date posted: 11/17/2009 4:57:17 AM
    Hometown: Alexandria, VA

    Comment:

    For most of us in the Washington gay community, this is sad news. Although there are some that have found fault with it over the years, The Washington Blade has been one of the central elements in the ability of the DC gay community's to have a unifying voice, and a place that all of us knew we could go to to find out the latest information on what was happening in the metro area. For all the negative posts about poor leadership, reporters from the Blade would at times be given front row seats at White House press conferences..... you don't get that kind of recognition by being a poor news outlet. Concerning the paper's profitability, the Blade did make a profit which is why it was orginally purchased by the out of town conglomerate. One final comment- Thanks to all who are currently trying to form an new central news voice for our community. The vast majority of us will support you in your work realizing that we desperatley need one to maintain a strong community identity.

  • Name: Mark
    Date posted: 11/16/2009 8:59:38 PM
    Hometown: Washington, DC

    Comment:

    It was a slow death for the Washington paper. Like it or not, if a business doesn't make money, it will close. If you don't have capable people running it on a local level, it will close. To make excuses on the "corporation" is stupid and that's all it is - excuses. If the DC paper does start up with it's same leadership, it's fate is already sealed.

  • Name: CJ BROOKS
    Date posted: 11/16/2009 4:53:07 PM
    Hometown: WASHINGTON, D.C.

    Comment:

    FINALLY. THANK GOD. THESE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN FORCING THEIR LITTLE CHEAP, TRASHY NEWSOPAPERS DOWN THE THROATS OF PEOPLE FOR YEARS. ITS FINE AND GREAT WHEN PEOPLE "WANT" AND "SUBSCRIBE" TO THIS PIECE OF CRAP, BUT WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT THEY DO NOT WANT YOUR PAPER, AND YOU CONTINUOUSLY BRING THE CRAP TO THEIR HOME, THEY NEED TO CLOSE. AND UNLESS THEY WANT TO MEET THE SAME FATE AGAIN IF THEY MANAGE TO START THIS PAPER UP AGAIN, I SUGGEST THAT YOU DELIVER YOUR B.S. TO PEOPLE WHO SUBSCRIBE TO IT, AND QUIT THINKING THAT YOU ARE GOING TO REACH PEOPLE AND GET CUSTOMERS - GAY, LESBIAN, STRAIGHT ETC., JUST BY LAYIING YOUR PAPERS ALL OVER THE STREETS AND DELIVERING THEM TO PLACES UNWANTED. I GOT "MY" MONEY FROM WINDOWS MEDIA WHEN I SUED THEIR ASSES FOR SLANDER. THREE YEARS AGO. THEY ARE INFAMOUS FOR POKING FUN AT PEOPLE. WINDOWS MEDIA IS RACIST, AND PREFERS TO CATER TO WHITES, WHICH IS FINE. WHITE PEOPLE NEED TO READ ABOUT THEIR MEN BOINKING EACH OTHER IN THE ANUS. GREAT STUFF!!!

  • Name: dennis
    Date posted: 11/16/2009 2:19:32 PM
    Hometown: mpls

    Comment:

    sad. now the washington hypocrites won't be able to read anything local.... just the dvocate... as they continue their BS towards "us" and toward the world in general. i'm not surprised. btwm in mpls, we have a newspaper that is basically content 1% and ads 99%. it's bot much better than 0.

  • Name: Sandy
    Date posted: 11/16/2009 1:47:27 PM
    Hometown: DC

    Comment:

    this is totally unacceptable.



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