Badpuppy Gay Today

Wednesday, 26 March, 1997

"If OUT Magazine's claims of over 150,000 visitors per month to its web site are to be believed," writes Jeff Epperly in Boston's Bay Windows, "it was one of the most heavily trafficked gay and lesbian sites in cyberspace."

The national gay and lesbian magazine, a principal source of same-sex perspectives on the Internet, has killed its two-year old website magazine, citing major financial losses as the reason. Profitability became hopeless, even with such advertisers as Apple Computer, Clairol, and Nynex Corporation, according to Henry Scott, President of OUT Publishing. The well-known web magazine's demise was also announced on the first page of The New York Times' business section (March 25) and in the March 24th issue of Advertising Age.

According to Scott, advertisers were not clamoring, as hoped, to advertise on the Web. It was necessary, in fact, to "beat them up" in order to encourage ad placements. The OUT Publishing president said that his site had lost between $50,000 and $100,000 annually since its inception. Bay Windows reports that OUT spokesperson, Ted Kruckel, put the figure at $200,000.

"Nobody is turning a profit," complained Scott, "Publishers...didn't have clear goals when their sites were launched." When one does not have a clear goal, explained Scott, it becomes difficult to know if one is meeting one's goal.

According to Advertising Age, Henry Scott has issued a warning to other Web publishers: "If your site doesn't add to your bottom line, get out."

Fortunately, says Badpuppy's editor, Jack Nichols, in reply, "GayToday is not dependent on advertising. This gives our news and features site a wonderfully free reign of expression, one that doesn't have to kow-tow to any advertiser's demands. Since the Badpuppy site energetically supports GayToday, our news site doesn't fear ad-revenue censors or worry about suddenly disappearing from the Web because they won't support us. There are very few publications enjoying this kind of editorial freedom that Badpuppy's GayToday allows. Most publications worry incessantly that their contents may offend their advertisers. GayToday has no such worries."

The New York Times reacted to OUT's difficulties with an almost gleeful tone. "Web Publishers Start to Feel Lack of Advertising," reported the Times' headline. "The great Web Shakeout," writes Seth Schiesel, "as some in the industry fear it might become, has been gathering momentum for at least a year, as Internet advertising has failed to grow quickly enough to support all would-be Web publishers and as users continue to balk at paying for so much on-line material besides pornography."

"The New York Times," replies GayToday editor Nichols, greatly fears ad revenue competition, but, happy day, that newspaper has, presently, nothing to fear from us."