LPI Media corporate editorial director Wieder stepping down  | News | Advocate.com

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March 09, 2006
LPI Media corporate editorial director Wieder stepping down
LPI Media corporate editorial director Wieder stepping down

LPI Media Inc. announced on Tuesday that corporate editorial director Judy Wieder will be leaving the company on March 22. Long the guiding force for the company's prominent LGBT publications, Wieder joined The Advocate as its arts and entertainment editor in 1993. In 1996 she became the magazine's first woman editor in chief. She led the title through 2002, when she was promoted to her current position.

As corporate editorial director, Wieder supervised the content of The Advocate, Out magazine, The Out Traveler, HIV Plus, and the book company Alyson as well as related online publications. Under her leadership, LPI Media partnered with Viacom's LGBT channel, Logo, to create LPI-branded TV programming, including its The Advocate Newsmagazine series, the second installment of which will appear in April. She is also executive vice president of the company, which was purchased by PlanetOut Inc. in November.

Wieder will not be replaced, said Bob Cohen, president of LPI Media. "When a senior leader of Judy’s scope and influence leaves our company, there are many mixed emotions," Cohen wrote in an e-mail to the PlanetOut staff. "Let’s use this occasion to rededicate ourselves to high standards of editorial independence, excellence, and service to the LGBT community at all of our magazines and Web sites. We thank Judy for her service and wish her every success in her next endeavors."

Cohen, who joined LPI when PlanetOut completed its purchase in November, will now directly supervise editorial operations.

"Let me just express, on behalf of CEO Lowell Selvin and all my colleagues at LPI...and PlanetOut, our gratitude for Judy’s years of dedication, accomplishment, and high standards," Cohen said in the companywide e-mail. "The LPI Media businesses that we know today have been enriched by Judy’s guidance these past 13 years."

Before joining The Advocate, Wieder was the founding editor of Genre, the first glossy national lifestyle magazine for gay men. She had a long career in music and celebrity journalism and had also won a Grammy as a songwriter. She lives in Venice, Calif., with her longtime partner, singer-songwriter Suzanne Buirgy.

"Judy's talents are amazing," said Bruce C. Steele, current editor in chief of The Advocate, whom Wieder hired in 1999 as the magazine's executive editor. "Not only is she a seasoned journalist with unfailing instincts about news of all stripes, her leadership has been both inspired and an inspiration. The magazine, the company, and everyone who has worked with her have grown and learned an incalculable amount from her guidance. She will be missed."

"Now I know what people mean when they say, 'I'm speechless.' I thought they were just being lazy," Wieder told Advocate.com. "But leaving the magazines I love and the people I've worked side by side with for 13 years—there are no words for how big this feels. Since I am not retiring—just taking some long deep breaths for a little while—I am fortunate in that I will be able to let my head catch up to my heart. All I know for sure is that I've been one lucky woman to have had this amazing opportunity come to me at such a vibrant time in our history."

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