New Gay Newspaper for South Florida

Despite the challenging climate for newspapers, a Broward County attorney and gay media entrepreneur has announced his intention to launch a newspaper for South Florida's LGBT community. The first issue of the South Florida Gay News will be published around January 25.

According to The Miami Herald, criminal defense attorney Norm Kent started the Express Gay News in 1999, which he sold in 2003 to Window Media, which renamed the newspaper the South Florida Blade. That publication and others, such as the Washington Blade and the Southern Voice, shut down abruptly last month after parent company Window Media filed for bankruptcy.

The South Florida Gay News, which will be based in Wilton Manors and have print and online versions, will include columnists such as Wayne Besen of the advocacy group Truth Wins Out; he grew up in Broward County. The newspaper will compete with another publication launched in South Florida in the wake of the Window Media closings, according to the Herald.

"Kent's news operation will compete directly with the well-known Mark's List brand, a South Florida-based online site that launched its own gay newspaper, Florida Agenda, immediately after South Florida Blade closed in November," the Herald reported.