Vermont hasn't had a GLBT newspaper since Out in the Mountains folded in 2006. Now seven more gay publications are following suit. All Window Media publications abruptly closed up shop today, including the Southern Voice, the Houston Voice and the venerable Washington Blade. Staffers at the Southern Voice arrived at work this morning to find the locks had been changed. 

Here's the link from the Poynter newsletter that arrived in my inbox this morning. Washington DC GLBT newsmagazine Metro Weekly is reporting that the investment fund that owns the publications has been forced into receivership by the Small Business Administration.

This news comes on the heels of the announcement of changes at the national glossy The Advocate. That magazine will now be distributed with Out mag, and may cease appearing on newsstands altogether. Times are tough in the gay mediasphere.

Oddly, the best coverage of the Window Media shut down that I've read so far is from the non-gay Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I love the quote at the end:

[Laura] Douglas-Brown became editor of Southern Voice three years ago. Shespent a total of 12 years with the weekly, having been an intern forsix months before Window Media bought it, she said.

The new owners contributed an infusion of cash as well as energy,she said. Having sister publications also beefed up their own coverage,as Douglas-Brown said she could rely upon the Washington Blade to covera Congressional hearing and use their story.

“We were like our own little gay AP,” she said.