New York Blade and HX Magazine Merge Options

[Critter]

New York Blade HX Magazine Merger Announcement

Wow, I did not see this coming. It looked like something had to happen with New York Blade (because the print version of New York Blade seemed to be losing its relevance in New York City), but I didn't see New York Blade going to HX Magazine (and HX Magazine essentially selling part of itself to Window Media). On the face of it, you have to wonder what HX Magazine gets out of this deal (HX does get a fancy smancy blog). You have to also wonder if it will only be a matter of days before Window Media's Washington Blade merges with or buys DC's Metro Weekly.

New York Blade seems like a very low-budget somewhat irrelevant gay publication in New York City. However, New York Blade is part of a rather large network of local gay and lesbian publications under the umbrella of a company called Window Media. Think of free New York City weekly The Village Voice merging with the national weekly chain New Times and you have essentially the same concept with free New York City gay weekly HX Magazine merging with national gay weekly chain Window Media.

GFN.com hinted that the recently announced merger of Planetout.com with gay magazine publisher LPI was a defensive move by Planetout against the arrival of Gay TV Networks Logo and Here TV. On the face of it, it sure seems like Planetout's financials are not all that great for a company that claims to be the biggest owner of gay websites. We then have to ask,

Is Gay Local?

There is some old saying that all politics is local. I've also heard it said that jobs are local. Now, it is begining to look like gay is local as well. I don't know what HX Magazine's financials look like, but, based on the sheat load of advertising in HX Magazine every week, it sure looks like HX Magazine's financials/income could be very close to if not greater than Planetout's financials/income. As we have noted before, there are little unknown temp agencies in New York City that are claiming income equal to and greater than the income reported by Planetout.com

Now, if HX Magazine's income is up there on par with Planetout.com's income, that would then imply that Window Media, with its network of local gay and lesbian publications (including Washington Blade) could actually be far more profitable than Planetout.com/out.com/gay.com combined (i.e., it could just be that the real money in Gay is from selling advertising to local gay businesses in large metro areas). It just may be that, like politics, Gay is Local.

Google The Biggest Gateway to Gay.

If you take a look at the press release that Planetout issued on its announced merger with LPI, you will see that Planetout specificially noted its contract with Google Adsense as a significant asset. Gay tv networks Logo and Here TV do not appear to have significant online traffic at their websites at this time. In addition, neither HX Magazine online, nor New York Blade online, nor DC's Metro Weekly online appear to have significant online traffic to their websites (queerty.com appears to have more online traffic than anyone of the mentioned websites). In other words, while the concept of operating a network of local gay and lesbian publications seems like it might be the most profitable gay business plan in existence right now, with local eyeballs and local transacting moving online, this business plan appears to be heading straight for a brick wall known as Google.

Then again, the Google Brick Wall for Local Gay could actually be a Sugar Daddy in Disguise.

There was a news report earlier in the year that Google was seeking to partner with yellow pages companies so that the network of sales teams at Yellow Pages companies couild offer advertising on Google Adsense to local businesses. It seems to me, and I'm just a dumb Black Man, but it seems to me that Google has to recognize that Window Media is the biggest sales team available to offer local gay businesses the service of advertising online on Google Adsense. And, here we have a rather tricky situation for Window Media. Window Media has to see the chance to make a lot of money from Google by (as with yellow pages companies) offering its local customers the option of buying online advertising on Google's Adwords/Adsense network. However, Window Media also has to at some point see that helping local gay businesses go online and advertise on Google Adsense would be essentially destroying (or at least hurting) its own income from its local gay publications.

I see Window Media talking to Google right now and saying: "Marry Me or Take A Hike Google".