LGBT POV

UPDATE:  FORMER WASHINGTON BLADE EDITOR LISA KEEN SPOKE WITH MIKE STAMLER AT THE SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION – AND HE SAID WINDOW MEDIA SHUT DOWN THE NEWSPAPER. READ LISA’S REPORT HERE. AND GAY CITY NEWS CONTINUES IT’S EXCELLENT COVERAGE HERE.

Nicholas F. Benton is among the many shocked over the sudden closure of the legendary gay newspaper, the Washington Blade. But Benton’s shock goes deeper: he intended to buy the Blade precisely to avoid it being shut down as part of a larger receivership process.

Benton, the openly gay owner of the DC-area Falls Church News-Press weekly, told LGBT POV that he had won a bid through his corporation, Benton Communications, Inc., to purchase the Washington Blade in order to maintain its 40-year legacy and keep what many consider the LGBT newspaper “of record” functioning in the nation’s Capitol.

Though the negotiations for the buyout of the Blade involved the federal Small Business Administration (see Duncan Osborne’s excellent reporting on the SBA connection for the Gay City News here), Benton said he was not informed about the closure.

Benton said:

I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if they [the SBA] knew if it was coming, themselves. My attorney is not in touch with anyone except the Window Media bankruptcy lawyer – they were working out the plan and it was almost completely finalized. The bankruptcy court proceeding included this sale as part of it. And my lawyer said he [the bankruptcy attorney] was clueless.  I think Window Media shut themselves down.”

Benton says that is pure speculation, however, based on the fact that it was Window Media that left a note on the door of the Southern Voice and informed the Blade staff that they had until Wednesday to clear out their belongings. The SBA, Benton said, has not returned any of their calls.

“I am really pretty much in the dark as no one is answering phones or returning calls yet. There are a lot of unanswered questions.”

One of those questions is why the SBA wouldn’t want to recoup money promised through the sale of the Blade and possibly other properties.

Benton said:

“The whole negotiations with the SBA began in September with the aim of preventing this from happening. We knew they were in receivership since Spring when they closed the New York Blade and this was an effort to prevent the Washington Blade and the South Florida paper from folding. We thought we were moving along according to plan – though slowly.”

Benton said he knows a lot of the Washington Blade staff.

“A lot of them are friends and if they can get it together to put out a new newspaper, that’s great.  My whole interest was to prevent the demise of the Blade and providing a haven for them to do their thing. I’ve been operating a newspaper for 19 years and I wasn’t relishing taking on another paper. My role was simply to make sure the balance sheets were taken care of.

But, yes, I’d be willing to talk with them. I think overtures are being made. But I want more information about what I would be dealing with. They would have to assume a lot of the headaches of management and running the paper – in addition to doing all the work to put out a great newspaper.”

Screen capture of the last Washington Blade frontpage online

Benton also criticized the new culture in which newspapers in general find themselves at the mercy of Wall Street’s demand for a high rate of return, which lead to the “dumbing down” of newspapers and the shaving back of editorial staff to make more money – “stripping newspapers of what makes them special.”

Benton said:

“The Blade was the victim of the same process where the parent company squandered loans from the SBA and wound up $40-$50 million in debt and in receivership – even though the newspaper at the end of the line was doing OK. I saw the balance sheets and they were doing OK.”

Benton called the loss of the nation’s LGBT newspaper of record “irresponsible.”

Benton added:

“I really hope they [the former Blade staff] can get it resolved and start a new publication and whatever their options are to provide that service to the LGBT community regionally and nationally – I’m open.”

In an email to LGBT POV, former Blade editor Kevin Naff said the staff had spoken with Benton and provided other good news.

Naff said:

We’ll be doing our own reporting on what happened — there are many unanswered questions. Why didn’t the SBA sell the assets to one of the two bidders rather than shut it down? Etc…

The outpouring of support from the community here has been truly overwhelming. We’ve had offers of free office space, web development, legal advice, freelance writers and more. The media attention has also been a surprise — front page of today’s Wash[ington] Post.

I can’t talk yet about financial support, but here are some new developments for you:

The full staff met this morning and we’ve agreed to launch a new publication. A very modest version will debut Friday in print and online. In the meantime, we’re about to debut a web site, savetheblade.com, where people can go to help or find related information. We’ve chosen a name for the publication but our lawyers are doing trademark/copyright searches now so I’m not quite ready to announce it. We will host a party tomorrow night, 6-8 pm, at the Hard Rock Cafe DC. Locals who want to share a memory or get involved in some way can meet the staff at that time.