Out.com founder Jeffrey Newman dies less than a week after partner's death

Jeffrey Newman, the founding president of Out.Com, has died, his family confirmed to The New York Times. He passed away four days after long-time partner Jayson Conner died from a heart attack. Newman was 58. Conner was 48.

The Queens couple was best known in recent years as the founders of Backpacks For The Streets, a grassroots organization providing direct assistance, including food, essentials, employment, health care and housing, to people experiencing homelessness.

Related: Meet the Gay Couple Helping NYC's Homeless Population in the Pandemic

Newman had lived in New York since 1997, when he moved to the city to work first as a senior editor with ABCNews.com and TheStreet.com. A year later, he launched Out.com, one of the first digital outlets focused on LGBTQ+ news. During his first year leading Out.com and GFN.com, Newman saw traffic double and expanded the staff from four to 40 people. He served as president and CEO of both outlets until early 2001.

During his time at Out.com, Newman made history by overseeing the first livestream of a gay wedding for an audience of more than 1 million, an event that later inspired an episode of “Will & Grace,” according to his official biography.

After leaving Out.com, Newman oversaw a restructuring of Spa Finder, then a travel and media company. As chief operating officer, he helped increase the company’s revenue from $4 million to $10 million in his first year and to $16 million within two years. In 2005, he founded Jeffrey Newman Consulting and focused on business development, fundraising, grant proposals and marketing.

Newman and Conner launched the nonprofit Together Helping Others in 2018. Its Backpacks for the Streets project initially served New York City’s homeless population. The effort grew from the couple distributing a few armfuls of backpacks filled with items such as Slim Jims, flashlights, and wool socks to operating a network of 40 volunteers that distributed 180,000 packs annually.

“We take what we do very seriously,” Newman told ABC News in 2020. “We’re not making little goody bags. We’re really thinking out what it is people need the most. It’s a labor of love.”

Conner, Newman’s spouse, had experienced homelessness for two years before meeting Newman.

Newman also spoke openly about living with HIV, disclosing his diagnosis publicly in 2001, according to W42St.com.

“After publicly sharing his own HIV-positive diagnosis in 2001, he became a powerful voice for awareness, compassion and hope,” brother Glenn Newman told the outlet. “He was also proudly sober beginning in 2008 and spoke openly about recovery, LGBT equality and suicide prevention, particularly among LGBT youth. His willingness to share his own experiences gave countless others the courage to seek help and live authentically.”

Newman announced Conner’s death on social media on what would have been the couple’s 22nd anniversary.

“We should be celebrating this milestone together at our favorite restaurant. Instead, I am left dealing with the coroner's office and making decisions I never imagined I would have to face. To say that I am in shock, devastated, and heartbroken would be an understatement,” he wrote on Facebook.

“Jayson was the love of my life. He was my person. He accepted me for who I am—flaws and all—and loved me unconditionally. We were partners in every possible sense. I don't have the words to express the depth of this loss. My heart is broken, and I don't know how to imagine life without him. I will share a longer post on another day.”

Newman’s final post was a link to a GoFundMe campaign set up by a friend after Conner’s death.