The folks at PlanetOut Inc. might be experiencing a Mark Twain moment today with rumors of the company’s demise circulating leading up to a weekend deadline for new funding required to keep the media conglomerate solvent. According to published reports, the company needed to secure $7 million in financing by June 30 to avoid insolvency.
Although it’s not getting much news pickup yet today, the company announced this morning that it had successfully raised more than $26 million in “private placement financing.” That apparently means the company has what it needs to continue moving forward in the reorganization plan that CEO Karen Magee has been discussing in media as of late.
This is good news for many reasons. PlanetOut was the first LGBT media company to be listed on the NASDAQ (it trades under the ticker “LGBT”) and is the owner of many iconic names in LGBT media including The Advocate and Out. The company also owns RSVP Vacations and a host of Web sites and other media outlets. But more importantly, the company is an example of the increasing power and relevance of LGBT marketing. PlanetOut’s existence demonstrates to the business world that our community is comprised of more than just locally owned newspapers and small businesses targeting specific niches or audiences. As our community grows in size and more marketers recognize the value of reaching out to us, I hope that PlanetOut will grow and prosper and that it will be joined by other examples of LGBT business leadership.
There’s been a lot of discussion online in the past several months about the future of The Advocate and Out given PlanetOut’s rocky financial situation and about the relative value of these publications given their publication history. I can make just as many comments about specific reporting in each publication too, but the more important thing is that we continue to have LGBT voices in media representing our community. We need these outlets to provide the independent news voice that we don’t get in so-called "mainstream" media. There’s a lot that PlanetOut could do better, but I think our community (and the country, for that matter) is much better off with them than without them.
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Thank you Ben for noting the many positive aspects of Planet Out and their properties. As you mention there are issues with the properties they own, but we cannot underestimate the voice they have in the business place and the voice they give to our community on the national level.