Blogging has provided us with the opportunity to meet and work with a number of people we might not have known otherwise. Thanks to the relationships we’ve built through the Out Front Blog, we can now count numerous LGBT media influencers, bloggers and organization leaders as friends. One of those people in Washington, D.C. is Sean Bugg, co-publisher of Metro Weekly.
Metro Weekly is a free weekly LGBT newsmagazine distributed throughout the Washington, D.C. area. In publication since the early 90s, it has become one of the leading sources for local and arts and entertainment news for our community. Originally focused on what is often called “lifestyle” reporting with stories on homes, decorating, dining, relationships, culture and shopping, the publication now also includes a strong "Gauge" section which features local community news and information. I read Metro Weekly every week and consider it a “must read” for local news and information. And I’m pleased to call Sean a friend.
In addition to serving as co-publisher of Metro Weekly, Sean is a blogger, a tennis player (and fan) and small business owner. He’s a great example of “the modern journalist” because he blends a print journalist’s experience with a blogger’s point of view: he understands where journalism is today and where it’s likely to go in the future.
With Sean’s perspective in mind, I focused my questions on the business of publishing and the impact of the economy on advertising. Sean’s answers provide a great deal of substantive information about the benefits of local LGBT publications and further underscore my longstanding point about the power and importance of such media outlets to and for our community.
Sean had a lot to share with us, so I’ve broken our Q&A into two parts. In Part One today, Sean talks about how he and his team make coverage decisions and the impact of the economy on advertising. In Part Two tomorrow, Sean will talk about Lynda Carter (TV’s Wonder Woman, as well as an established singer and entertainer) and Metro Weekly’s long-form Q&As and his thoughts on the future of publishing.
For more information on Sean, be sure to check out his personal blog at www.buggblog.com.
Ben Finzel: Metro Weekly is a free, weekly publication with a limited number of pages, so you have to be more judicious in deciding what to cover. How do you balance the demands of covering the entire community with your available resources and reliance on ad sales?
Sean Bugg: That’s the challenge that makes every editorial meeting an adventure. For the most part, the structure of the magazine into distinct sections has helped immensely with this question. The size of our Arts and Nightlife sections are determined in large part by the number of pages in that week’s magazine, so we’re rarely put into the situation where we have to pit the amount of community news in Gauge against, say, photos from a big party or a bunch of arts reviews.
So, for the challenge of choosing what gets covered in each section, whether it’s Gauge or Domestic Partner or Nightlife, comes down to asking: Is it interesting, both to us as writers and to our readers? Is it relevant to our community? When you have limited space, you have to make the most of it. You should learn something from every story, whether it’s the struggle of bi-national couples profiled in Gauge or the best local places to find fresh blueberries in Domestic Partner.
That said, we can’t do everything we’re asked, so every week is a series of hard choices — the same as for any publication. That means another important goal is fairness — trying to include all different parts of the community at one point or another, remembering who is having big events and when, keeping an eye on issues that may be important but not yet prominent. Keeping that balance is more a question of art and instinct than of formula and calendars.
Ben Finzel: What’s your pitch to the advertising community? What do you offer marketers that other outlets or mediums don’t? What kind of response are you getting now, amid the global economic downturn?
Sean Bugg: We have an amazingly loyal and regular base of readers — we’ve worked hard over the past few years to develop a locally-focused approach with regular, must-read content to make sure the magazine moves. When you’re a free-distribution publication, it all comes down to getting readers to pick you up — because they’re drawn to the cover, because they want to see community listings, because they’re interested in local LGBT news, or because they want to take a peek at the Coverboy of the Week. When you’re effectively serving your readers, then you’re able to serve your advertisers.
The biggest change we’ve made recently is the addition of the glossy cover, which has significantly boosted both the editorial and advertising value of the magazine. Not only has it been a hit with readers, it’s garnered us a lot of interest and new advertisers, for ads on both the glossy and on our interior newsprint.
Just as important — maybe even more so in the current economic climate — we offer some really great advertising deals. We’ve structured affordable packages for just about any size business, from small weekly presence ads to splashy full-page campaigns. We also have an excellent opt-in direct e-mail list that allows us to offer our advertisers exceptionally effective contact with our readers through e-mail alerts and regular contests. You can’t run a business without advertising or marketing it in order to bring in customers, but in an uncertain economy you can’t be profligate in your spending. That’s our sweet spot for advertisers: an effective route into the local LGBT market at prices that allow businesses to get as much value as possible for their dollar.
Like everyone else in the business (and the country, for that matter), we started the year nervous and a bit on the defensive as it looked like marketing budgets could collapse quickly, and we have seen a number of advertisers drop or scale back their marketing efforts. But after a brief dip during the winter, our numbers have stayed on track with 2008. While that means there hasn’t been significant growth in revenue, it does mean that we’ve effectively attracted and maintained new business, which makes us very positive about the potential for the rest of 2009.
Ben Finzel: Across the country, magazines and newspapers are really struggling. What’s your prediction for the future of local LGBT publications such as Metro Weekly?
Sean Bugg: I don’t think this is a particularly original insight, but I do see the future of print media — particularly locally focused print media such as Metro Weekly – as following the same path as other media forms that faced challenges due to new media. Looking back, you’d think that television would have killed radio — instead, radio evolved into forms and formats that played to the medium’s strengths and offered different media experiences than television could. The same goes for movies and, now that the internet has challenged pretty much every pre-existing media format, broadcast/cable media as well.
Obviously, where our online presence was once a supplement to and promotion of our print presence, we’re moving closer to the day where that situation will be reversed. Our print presence will no longer be the primary product around which we build everything; it will become another element in a broader approach in how we communicate news and information to our community.
Thanks to the internet and the growth of multimedia content, in the future we’ll all be broadcast journalists. I don’t believe that future is here, yet, though it’s close. A lot of outlets are rushing to get something, anything, online when it comes to video, and the results aren’t necessarily pretty. It’s kind of like we’re in another America’s Funniest Home Videos period — back when that show premiered it was a cultural sensation that augured much of the future of user-generated content and reality programming (and filling airtime for cheap), but now it seems cheesy and dated. Back then, people just turned on their camcorder and hoped somebody would do something stupid and earn them a million bucks; these days a lot of people are just shooting anything and sticking it on YouTube and hoping it earns them a million viewers.
Our audience is growing savvier by the day — by the minute — and the challenge is going to be how to provide compelling and quality content that keeps your audience engaged. For those us who have long been focused on creating great original content, I think the future will be both bright and interesting, even if it’s a challenge to get there.
Ben Finzel: Good stuff, Sean. And there’s more to come tomorrow. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us today.
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