The mainstreaming of gay titles - gay magazines - Magazine Watch

From Waldenbooks to the Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain, gay magazines are now sharing the shelves with other titles delivered by wholesalers. Publications like Out, Genre, 10 Percent, Frontiers and Our World can now be seen and purchased at a majority of newsstands and grocery chains that never carried any such titles before this year.

The "outing" of gay magazines can be credited to two key factors: Michael Goff and the changing content of gay publications. Although Goff is not the first to publish a gay lifestyle magazine, the president and editor in chief of the New York City-based bimonthly Out has been a major influence in altering the category's image.

Two years ago, when the idea of Out was in its infancy, Goff paid a visit to the FOLIO: show in New York City. Browsing through the gay titles on display with the rest of the 1991 launches, he realized none of the gay titles was directed to him. He recognized that there was "a need for a different kind of gay magazine."

Goff intended for Out to be "the best in culture, politics, insight and style for and about lesbians and gay men." In order to make that happen, he knew he had to hire the best people possible. "We had to deliver a high-quality, general-interest magazine to a community that had been ignored, not spoken to," he recalls. Today, Out is beating the odds, delivering a general-interest magazine to a select group of readers at a time when the national trend is toward specialized magazines for specialized audiences.

Prior attempts to publish titles like Out were either unsuccessful or had limited circulations. In Style, the first gay fashion magazine with no nudity, was launched in 1984 as an offshoot of In Touch. The magazine did not last for more than a few issues. Out/Look was born in 1988 from "the need to bring together the diverse elements of the lesbian and gay communities," according to a letter from the editors in the magazine's first issue. "We came from all races, ethnicities, social classes and political commitments." While still published, the magazine has only a very small circulation at highly specialized newsstands.

On the other hand, noting the evolving content of gay magazines, the Los Angeles-based bimonthly Genre, introduced in 1991 and targeting gay men, was able to expand into mainstream markets and benefit from the changes in the distribution and marketing of new gay titles. Another recent launch that is enjoying the new status of "mainstreaming" is the bimonthly 10 Percent, based in San Francisco. "There were no titles on the marketplace that served the 25-to 45-year-old gay audience," says Terry Turrentine, the magazine's publisher. "There was a need for a title dealing with home and family for our specific audience."

The changing attitude and content of gay magazines has also brought changes from the advertising community. An ability to draw staffers from mainstream publications and to produce high-quality editorial and graphics has helped these gay titles to woo traditional marketers, especially the fashion and liquor advertisers. Still, full-scale acceptance is a long way away. Goff and Turrentine agree that the true turning point will come when automotive advertisers, a traditionally conservative lot, are included in the picture.

Until then, the new gay magazines can find inspiration in the category's high survival rate--almost double the average survival rate of all new consumer titles. As the chart shows, approximately 58 percent of the 53 gay titles introduced in the past six years are still being published, with no less than a 50 percent survival rate for every year since 1987.

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