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Gay weekly Washington Blade closes
Paul Schwartzman
The Washington Blade, the weekly newspaper that chronicled the
coming-out of the capital's gay community, was born amid the idealism
of 1960s street protests. Monday, the paper died, victim of the
unforgiving realities of the nation's sagging newspaper industry.
Last month, the Blade celebrated its 40th anniversary at a swanky
downtown Washington party. The paper's nearly two-dozen employees
arrived at their downtown offices Monday to start a new workweek, only
to be ordered to clear out their desks by midafternoon.
Steven Myers, co-president of the paper's owner, Atlanta-based
Window Media, said the company also ceased operations at its other
gay-oriented publications, which include the Southern Voice newspaper
and David magazine in Atlanta, and the South Florida Blade and 411
magazine in Florida.
As employees in the District newsroom packed up and removed
photographs from the walls of the Blade's offices at the National Press
Building, Myers declined to explain the shutdown, saying the company
would release "a formal statement later this week." Staffers planned to
meet at a coffee shop Tuesday to plot a revival of the paper.
"It's a shock. I'm almost speechless, really," said Lou Chibbaro Jr., a Blade reporter who has written for the newspaper
since 1976, covering the full arc of the country's gay-rights movement,
from early marches through the rise of AIDS and on to the latest
battles over legalizing same-sex marriage.
The Blade, born in an era when most gays lived in the closet, grew in
size and stature as Washington's gay population blossomed and became
more politically active and influential. Chibbaro, who wrote his first
front-page story for the Blade under a pseudonym at a time when
publicly stating one's sexual orientation could be dangerous, felt the
change in dramatic fashion this year, when, while covering a
presidential news conference on health-care policy, he was directed to
a seat in the front row.
The Blade's closing comes at a moment of extraordinary optimism for
many gays in Washington. The big story Chibbaro and the paper's other
writers have been covering is the bill supported by nearly all of the
D.C. Council's members that would legalize same-sex marriage in the
city.
"Here we are, on the verge of having marriage equality, and it would be
real shame if the Blade wasn't there to cover the victory," said Deacon
Maccubbin, owner of Lambda Rising, the gay-oriented Dupont Circle
bookstore, which had been advertising in the paper since the shop's
1974 opening.
Kevin Naff, the Blade's editor, said Window Media officials told him
the company "was forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which means
liquidation." Window Media's majority stockholder, Avalon Equity
Partners, was placed in receivership by the U.S. Small Business
Administration last year. Naff and other staffers immediately began an
effort to revive the paper as an employee-owned operation.
This week's edition of the free weekly, which had a circulation of
23,000, won't be published. The Blade's Web site, which reported about
250,000 visitors a month, went dark Monday morning.
A small troupe of activists founded the Blade in 1969, a few months
after New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in
Greenwich Village, igniting riots and launching the gay rights
movement. In its infancy, the paper was known as the Gay Blade and
consisted of a single, letter-size sheet of paper that its editor,
Nancy Tucker, mimeographed and distributed herself, scooting around
town in a Volkswagen to drop off stacks at gay-friendly bars. The
paper's mission was to unite an eclectic array of gay groups, including
drag queens and government workers, literary buffs and motorcycle
enthusiasts; inform readers of gay-related services; and warn them
about blackmailers and other scammers.
In the ensuing decades, the Blade's editors became more ambitious,
switching to newsprint and dispatching reporters to write about
discrimination against gays in the federal government, hate crimes such
as the killing of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming, and political and health
issues generated by the AIDS epidemic.
Yet, equally important, the newspaper devoted itself to more routine
stories, casting light on murders and legislation that received little
or no attention from mainstream news outlets such as The Washington
Post. The Blade was also the place to find advertisements for
everything from doctors to lawyers to real estate agents who cater to
gays.
"They have become the voice of record for the gay community," said Franklin Kameny, widely recognized
as a pioneer of the gay rights movement. At 84 years old, Kameny still
made it a weekly part of his ritual to drive to Dupont Circle and pick
up the paper each Friday.
"I knew there were financial problems in the background, but I'm in a dumbfounded state of shock by this," Kameny said.
Window Media bought the Blade and other publications in 2001. Like
many news organizations, the Blade suffered financially in recent
years, although it still managed to turn a profit, said Lynn Brown, the
paper's publisher, in an interview on the occasion of the paper's 40th
anniversary.
Naff said Monday that he hopes to keep the staff together and
relaunch the paper under a new name. He would not provide more details
about potential investors or logistics.
"It will be employee-owned," Naff said. "We're not going away."
Asked the name of the new publication, he smiled and said, "Got any suggestions?"
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