Her announcement has caused controversy in the Big Apple.

New York's current newspaper, LGNY, according to conflicting reports, has reacted skeptically to Ms. Keen's announcement of the Washington, D.C. company's joint venture with News Communications, Inc., a well-established New York media company that publishes nearly two dozen weekly publications in New York aimed at general audiences.

To be called The New York Blade News, the new paper will be the first publication sponsored by News Communications that is aimed at a gay and lesbian readership. It is scheduled to begin publication on October 24, and proposes to be America's largest circulation gay newspaper. While The Washington Blade has a weekly press run of 45,000, its sibling New York paper will, on its first round, enjoy an unprecedented run of 50,000 copies.

"We've been hearing for years that New York needs a Gay newspaper like the Blade," said Michaels. "Now, we can make it a reality."

Michaels' Washington company has planned to launch its New York City paper since early 1995, consulting with gay community activists and hiring local writers.

News Communications' Chief Executive Officer Wilbur Ross has helped start many new media ventures -- including The Hill, a weekly newspaper in Washington, D.C., that covers Capitol Hill news for Congressional insiders. Ross has been quoted as saying:

As mainstream publishers, we would never be able on our own to create an authentic product for the rapidly growing, high demographic Gay market, but our economies of scale in producing, marketing, and distributing close to half-a-million papers per week will enable the Blade's highly professional reporters and editors to have a powerful and efficient operation from Day One.

Critics of the New York merger between a mainstream company and Washington's gay-owned Blade say that the Washingtonians may have already learned how hard New York can be and LGNY has reportedly "made a big stink about the alliance"

One major thrust of New York's criticism is political. The Washington Blade, say wary Manhattanites, has allied itself to a "heterosexual newspaper group, NCI," owned by Wilbur Ross, husband of Republican Governor George Pataki's Lieutenant Governor, Betsy McCoy Ross.

Also, the New Yorkers question the effects of heterosexual corporate values on what it thinks should remain in community hands. They point to the competitive threat this alliance poses to the three-year old gay community owned newspaper LGNY. LGNY will need a high stakes publisher to compete but insists that its new partner will be a member of the community. Unconfirmed reports say that the New York paper is seeking its own alliance with Liberation Publications, Inc., publisher of The Advocate.

From Washington, the Blade's Lisa Keen, commenting on recent "news reports, e-mails, and published missives going around" says that it now "appears that some people are concerned that the arrival of another gay newspaper in New York City will jeopardize the livelihood of some gay publications already publishing there."

"To discourage gay people from reading this new publication," she says, "some of these reports are claiming that the new publication, The New York Blade News, is a straight-owned and operated business that is "licensing the name of a gay newspaper 300 miles from NYC."

Ms. Keen replies that The New York Blade News is "a 50-50 venture" between The Washington Blade, a gay-owned and operated newspaper, and News Communications, Inc. As an editorial product, she points out, that partnership agreement stipulates that its staff will govern the content of The New York Blade News "exclusively and completely."

Although the forthcoming New York paper will present news coverage as does The Washington Blade, its graphics and its general appearance will differ. The New York Blade News will focus specifically on New York City and state news, but will also carry national news from The Washington Blade's reporting on gay groups and federal government activities in Washington, D.C.