National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) meeting in San Francisco
The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) convention got underway Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in San Francisco.
Despite a hotel workers union protest outside the hotel, the attendance at the morning panels was packed. Thursday is the first day of the four-day conference. It focused on the LGBT media.
The first panel focused on the state of the gay press with panelists from the Bay Area Reporter, Curve Magazine, and Philadelphia Gay News.
The panel was moderated by Bay Area Reporter Assistant Editor Matthew Bajko. The publisher of Philadelphia Gay News, Mark Segal said that despite the recession, the state of gay journalism is strong. He noted that 80 to 85% of PGN ads are from non-gay businesses. Segal said that advertisers see the value of reaching a lucrative market for fewer dollars than they would have to pay for in the mainstream press.
“We’re not looking in our own community for advertising,” Segal said.
But Segal added that overall advertising has been down about 15%. He said that PGN has had to cut back but in ways that readers haven’t noticed. Segal noted that PGN has no employees dedicated to its Web site.
Frances Stevens, the publisher and founder of the lesbian magazine, Curve, discussed the challenges of reaching the lesbian market and noted that the magazine overall has faced tough challenges. She noted that despite the slick look of the magazine, it is mostly “smoke and mirrors.”
“We are crazy lean and mean,” said Stevens. “There is no waste.”
A popular mid-morning panel was titled, “LGBT Media. Is there an app for that?”
The founder, publisher and CEO of Edge Media Network, David Foucher, noted the complexity of developing the most basic app and that the I-Phone uses a completely technology than android phones.
“It takes xix months of learning before you can develop the simplest app. “ Foucher said.
The panel was moderated by Bay Area Reporter Assistant Editor Seth Hemmelgarn.
“Giving content away for free is scary but it is crucial,” said freelance writer and blogger Matt Baume who added that users won’t pay to go to web sites that hare kept behind a paid subscription wall.
Baume said that mainstream established media thins of their readership as an audience while newer web-based media see themselves as a community. He noted that when he wrote for sites such as Sfist, he got many more comments than when he wrote for KNTV’s Web site.
Click here for an article on Thursday's afternoon session.
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