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Written by mike
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Wednesday, 09 April 2008 04:15 |
Like a closeted jock looking to have his flamboyant theater queen lover expelled, Gay.com gleefully announced that it had sold its publishing arm today, including the Advocate and Out Magazine, and, most significantly, the highly profitable softcore Specialty Publications titles: Unzipped, Freshmen, Men and [2] to here! entertainment. Surprisingly, the Specialty Publications sale was barely mentioned in the press announcement and no individual titles were listed.
"We are extremely pleased that here! Networks will be the new parent
company for our publishing business," said Karen Magee, Chief Executive
Officer, PlanetOut Incorporated. Here!, through parent production company Regent
Entertainment, expects to use the mags to
promote the coming-out-story flesh fests that make up the basis of Regent's
business.
No doubt. Specialty Publications, in particular, was seen as an
impediment to a long-anticipated sale of PlanetOut Inc. (Gay.com's parent
company had retained Allen & Company to help broker a deal), possibly to a larger media conglomerate whose shareholders might have balked at the idea of owning a softcore-porn publishing company. (Specialty Publications also had a now-discontinued hardcore video line filmed by Chi Chi LaRue as Unzipped Video - link NSFW). One of the largest profit sources for the company, Gay.com Personals, has faced a relentless assault of competition from sites like Manhunt and Craigslist, as well as social networking sites like MySpace and DList.
While Out maintains a healthy ad revenue business, the more political
Advocate has recently gotten meth-skinny as online sources for gay news
have grown, including here!-rival Logo's 365gay.com. Bill
Gates, through his Cascade Investment arm, had helped fund PlanetOut
last summer which had suffered financial declines after the companies
2004 IPO. PlanetOut stock dropped 20% on the news.
RELATED:
Is the Advocate Getting Dangerously Thin?
365Gay.com: The Great Snooze Flash Aggregator
I Want My M4MTV: A User's Guide to Gay Cable
PlanetOut Inc Enters Binding Letter of Intent for Sale of Publishing Businesses (Yahoo! Business)
What's Up with PlanetOut (Queerty.com)
The Suckiest Job In Gay Media (Gawker.com)
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