New Atlanta Gay Print Publication (Georgia Voice) Set To Launch
The former editor of the now-defunct gay and lesbian newspaper Southern Voice has announced she will be launching a new publication early next year called Georgia Voice.
Last month, Window Media, which owned the Southern Voice, the Washington Blade and other publications, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, silencing some of the strongest of the voices for the LGBT movement and leaving about a dozen former Southern Voice staffers without paychecks.
Not to be defeated however, Chris Cash, the former owner of the Southern Voice, and Laura Douglas-Brown, the former editor, began a drive to save the publication soon after the Southern Voice was shut down permanently by it creditors and obtained a $12,000 matching grant from the Lloyd E. Grant Foundation of Atlanta.
“It became so clear in such a short period of time how much this publication was needed,” Douglas-Brown told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, last month.
Douglas-Brown has her work cut out for her, and is now busy contacting potential staffers and advertisers.
Douglas-Brown and Cash are also reaching out to the Atlanta LGBT community to help raise more seed money for the new venture at www.savesovo.com and are looking for donations from SoVo supporters to help get their project off the ground.
In an interview yesterday with Atlanta Public Radio station WABE Douglas-Brown said her top priority is making the new publication financially sustainable…“That will mean certainly a smaller staff than Southern Voice and David magazine shared. It will mean using more freelancers, and it might even mean using volunteers. There are certainly people who have volunteered to help us on a pro-bono basis as we get started.”Douglas-Brown also said in the interview, while some publications have become Web-only, she really wants to get out a traditional a print version of the publication.
“You want to be first and fast on the Web and sometimes that doesn’t leave as much time to look at the big picture of a story, really get analysis and feedback, and thats what we see doing in the print publication.” Story: WABE: New gay publication planned for Atlanta 2009-12-08.
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