In a guest post for the Women's Media Center, I discuss the abrupt closing of the estimable Washington Blade and how staffers swiftly rallied to launch a new publication. This is no small matter. As the Washington Post put it: "The Blade's importance to our area cannot be overstated. From the HIV/AIDS epidemic to hate crimes to the drive for marriage equality, the paper reported stories that the mainstream press initially didn't or wouldn't cover. ... it held people accountable -- gay and straight, elected officials and community leaders. Because of that, the Washington Blade ... was considered the paper of record by gays and lesbians across the country."
An excerpt from my piece:These days, if you visit www.washblade.com, you’re confronted with a deadening page of code, pockmarked by words like “unexpected error” and “invalid.”
“Unexpected error”—I’ll say.
It’s a sorry state of affairs for the once vibrant “news source of record” for the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community. The Washington Blade was one of the longest-serving LGBT newspapers in the nation, and the second-largest in circulation. Founded in the wake of the Stonewall riots, the Blade just celebrated its 40th anniversary last month … only to have its parent company, Window Media, abruptly file for bankruptcy weeks later.
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There’s hope, however: staffers aren’t letting go easy. Just last week came word that the passionate reporting of the Blade will have a place in a new paper. This next incarnation is called The D.C. Agenda, and it’s buoyed by a team of people that—for now—are all volunteers. Indeed, the spanking-new Agenda is already publishing news both online and in print.
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