Posts Tagged ‘Q&A’

It’s Our Business: A Conversation with Echelon Business Media’s Michael Lamb on LGBT Businesses in the Recession and Recovery

Posted by

Michael Lamb While consumers may be making their lists and checking them twice this time of year, businesses are already looking ahead to 2010. And you better believe after this year, their checking budgets — more than twice.

With near daily coverage of the economy and its effect on businesses, media largely overlooked how the year's recession uniquely impacted LGBT businesses and franchises. To get some greater insights, the Out Front Blog thought we'd have a virtual cup of coffee and chat with the editor of some of the leading publications and resources for LGBT businesses, Michael Lamb, editor-in-chief of Echelon Business Media and president of GayFranchise.com.

1. It was tough year for businesses of all kinds, but what specifically unique challenges (especially communication challenges) did LGBT businesses face?

Lamb: LGBT businesses, like all businesses suffered more challenges than usual this year due to the recession.

During these times, every company is looking to maximize their sales by spending the least amount of money. 

Target marketing has always been the route for many companies as a consequence of an economic downturn. The LGBT community in particular is a very desirable target as they possess a high disposable income and many households do not include children. A business professional identifies as an “LGBT” business owner to further connect with the community and entice these customers to buy from a like-minded company. 
 
Fortunately, the LGBT community has a knack for survival and a penchant for technology according to market research. I would postulate that these talents have been utilized well by LGBT business owners.
 
With less advertising dollars on hand, social media has also grown into a major part of every company’s marketing strategy and understanding how tech-savvy the LGBT community is, could blossom into a gift from God for LGBT business owners.
 
Therefore, the biggest communication challenge LGBT business owners faced was to understand how social media works and how to integrate it into their ongoing business plan.
 
2. Over the past few years, how have companies changed in the way they communicate/interact with gay employees or gay business owners?

Lamb: Overall, the divide in communications between mainstream businesses and the LGBT community has lessened. With every year that passes, there are more corporations achieving 100 percent in HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, more companies are signing on with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce to do business with certified LGBT business owners and all of these activities translate into an increased level of acceptance and equality.
 
3. What are your predictions for LGBT businesses/franchises and LGBT communications in 2010?

Lamb: The world is a much different place with President Obama in office despite recent LGBT criticism. Just by being the leader of our country, he puts out a message to the world that it is ok to be different. With that said, I think we are going to see many more companies advertising directly to the LGBT community. On our sister site, www.gayfranchise.com, we have already accumulated over 75 concepts in our directory and we foresee it being doubled in 2010.

Check back later today for the conclusion of our conversation with Michael. In the meantime, we'd love to hear your predictions for the year ahead.

| December 8th, 2009 No Comments »
Tags: · · · · ·

The Modern Journalist: More Q&A with Metro Weekly Co-Publisher Sean Bugg

Posted by

Metro Weekly Logo 3W We conclude our two-part Q&A with Metro Weekly co-publisher Sean Bugg today with a conversation about long-form Q&As, Wonder Woman and the 15th anniversary of the publication. Click here to check out part one of our Q&A and check out Metro Weekly online for even more information about the publication and the latest news and updates.

Ben Finzel: Metro Weekly has become famous for its long-form Q&As with leading lights in entertainment, business and other fields (for example, I loved your recent Q&A with Lynda Carter – I’m a longtime fan). Has it become easier for you to book these interviews over time, or do you still have to make the case for why people should consider participating in a Q&A with you? Why do you think that is the case?
 
Sean Bugg: When my co-publisher Randy Shulman founded the magazine, we had an ace in the hole with his extensive network of contacts that he had built during his years as a film and stage critic in the D.C. area, so even in our first couple of years we were pulling in interviews with pretty major personalities such as Ian MacKellen, Judith Light, Kenneth Branagh and Greg Louganis.

That said, it’s always a challenge to set up interviews in our Q&A format, mainly because they require a big investment in time — you need at least an hour of uninterrupted interview time, plus a half hour or more for a photo shoot (if possible). It’s a big time commitment, but we have a great track record to show people what happens with our interviews. Plus, I’m all about saying “no” when a particular personality demands that the interview be done in 15 minutes or that questions be submitted in advance.

Read more »

| July 21st, 2009 No Comments »
Tags: · · ·

The Modern Journalist: Q&A with Metro Weekly Co-Publisher Sean Bugg

Posted by

SeanBuggTF clr 2 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.

Read more »

| July 20th, 2009 No Comments »
Tags: · · ·

The Publisher: More Q&A with Falls Church News-Press Owner-Editor Nicholas F. Benton

Posted by

FCNP Logo NEW Today, we conclude our two-part Q&A with Falls Church News-Press owner-editor Nicholas F. Benton. In this conversation, Nick talks about the challenges of covering the LGBT community and addresses the future of independent community newspapers and the impact of the Internet on his work. Let us know your thoughts and check out the next weekly edition of the News-Press out tomorrow in the DC area and online at www.fcnp.com.

Ben Finzel: Your business focus is, first and foremost, on serving the needs of your readership, regardless of whether they are straight or gay. Do you feel a special responsibility to be more representative of our community given your own background?

Nick Benton: Yes, absolutely. To me, being gay obviously shapes my overall value structure which in turn permeates everything about the newspaper. This may have something to do with the fact that my own “coming out” was in the context of the civil rights, women’s and gay liberation and peace struggles of the late 1960s. In my editorials and in the focus that I bring to news coverage, I emphasize core values of equal rights, fair play and a more compassionate society. I consider my “constituency” to be the underrepresented in society, including the young, the elderly, the infirm, minorities based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and so forth. My news coverage emphasizes issues of affordable housing, schools, social services and the kinds of economic development that can help fund these. I often write directly on LGBT issues, as well, and when I introduced Wayne Besen’s column earlier this decade, I was pleased that my readers embraced it fully without complaint. I was frankly surprised by that.

Furthermore, I and my newspaper are active within the community. I serve on a number of boards promoting small business, the arts, education and LGBT issues. I sponsor an annual food drive, and a scholarship at the local high school for students who intend to enter careers focused on “enfranchising the disenfranchised.” I founded the “Diversity Affirmation Education Fund” in my name for the Falls Church School System, making a couple of large financial contributions that have gone to bringing the diversity-affirming “Challenge Days” to the local high school, and now also the middle school. As a board member of the local Chamber of Commerce, I convinced it to become the only such body in the entire state to go on record against the Marshall-Newman Amendment, the constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage in Virginia.

I also feel strongly that I have a special responsibility to my advertisers, many of whom are smaller businesses and including those who have been advertising with me from Day One in 1991 to the present. My responsibility takes the form of producing a good newspaper that people are eager to read every week. As a result, my advertisers are more successful, can hire more employees and so forth. This is my “pro-family” policy, to help families succeed by helping the businesses that employ them and can help pay for their children to buy new clothes and go to college. It should not go without saying that my newspaper circulates in one of the most demographically-attractive regions of the U.S. from an advertiser standpoint. We are the only newspaper in an area of 100,000 souls that have $4 billion in annual disposable income, one of the highest-income-per-capita regions of the nation. If only more national advertisers could appreciate what a great “bang for the buck” they’d get by being in my newspaper, we’d all benefit.

Read more »

| July 8th, 2009 No Comments »
Tags: · · ·

The Publisher: Q&A with Falls Church News-Press Owner-Editor Nicholas F. Benton

Posted by

Nickphoto Over the past two and a half years, we’ve featured national, regional and local dignitaries in this Q&A series. Some of our interview subjects have become our friends over the course of our working together on the blog. Today, we’re featuring a man who is a longtime friend of mine. Nicholas F. Benton is the owner-editor of the Falls Church News-Press, an independent weekly newspaper in the Washington suburbs that he founded in 1991.

A native of California, Benton earned a graduate degree from the Pacific School of Religion in 1969, and was the co-founder of the Berkeley, Calif., Gay Liberation Front in 1970. His essay, “Berkeley and the Fight for an Effeminist, Socially-Transformative Gay Identity,” appears in the just-released anthology, “Smash the Church, Smash the State, The Early Days of Gay Liberation” by City Lights Books, published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the founding of the modern gay liberation movement.  

The News-Press is a relative newcomer in the Washington media landscape, but thanks to Nick’s commitment (and his superior networking skills), it has fast become a must-read for many political and media leaders. The fact that this “mainstream” daily newspaper is helmed by an openly gay man is significant and still fairly unique in the publishing world.

In my daily worklife, I spend a great deal of time thinking about how best to work with all types of media. As the media landscape continues to grow and change, I’d suggest that regional independent newspapers such as the News-Press are just as important as other news sources in reaching specific audience segments. Let me know what you think once you've read my two-part Q&A with Nick.

Today, in part one, Nick talks about the paper, his background and his thoughts about being openly gay in the newspaper business. In part two tomorrow, Nick will address the challenges of covering our community, the future of regional newspapers and the impact of the Internet on his business.

Ben Finzel: Tell us about the Falls Church News-Press.

Read more »

| July 7th, 2009 No Comments »
Tags: · ·

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »