Indulge us while we brag a little bit: The Atlanta Press Club recently announced finalists for its 2010 Awards of Excellence, and two GA Voice journalists made the list.
GA Voice Deputy Editor Dyana Bagby is one of two finalists in the category of Small Print Circulation / News. R. Robin McDonald of The Daily Report is the other finalist in the category.
GA Voice Editor Laura Douglas-Brown is one of two finalists in the Opinion category. Ann Woolner of Bloomberg is the other.
From gay Memorial Day to Gay Days in Orlando, our new print edition helps you plan your summer vacation
ATLANTA, GA - GA Voice, the LGBT media outlet of record for Atlanta and the state of Georgia, announced today a strategic partnership with the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB) for “Destination: Gay Atlanta,” a travel guide for LGBT visitors. Under the terms of the partnership, “Destination: Gay Atlanta,” a product of GA Voice, will be the official LGBT guide for visitors to Atlanta and a resource for its many diverse residents. The print and digital versions of the travel guide will launch in late May.
The print version of “Destination: Gay Atlanta” will be distributed at all ACVB visitor centers as well as numerous strategic locations throughout the city. The digital version will reside at www.gay-atlanta.com which will be re-branded and marketed by ACVB as the official LGBT visitor site for Atlanta. GA Voice will provide all LGBT specifi c content to the site in addition to the travel guide. ACVB will provide general content and searchable listings of interest to all visitors and residents.
Check out our Spring preview and the story of how Atlanta changed the heart of NOM's Louis Marinelli — and so much more!
Laura Douglas-Brown
Editor and Co-Founder
Laura Douglas-Brown is an award-winning writer and editor with more than a decade of experience covering local and national issues that impact Georgia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. She joined the staff of Southern Voice in 1997 and served as the paper’s editor from 2006 until its closure in 2009. She launched the GA Voice with Chris Cash to help ensure that our community always has a “Voice.” Douglas-Brown is a proud soccer mom who lives with her partner, Donna, and two daughters in northeast Atlanta. She is a card-carrying member of the PTA and, at press time, had 72 Diet Coke cans on her desk.
Last year, when we launched the GA Voice, the topic for this space was defined for me. It was our premier issue and I said something like people still need gay media, people still read, we have the staff and talent to deliver quality coverage, etc.
This year I have to actually decide on a topic. I could talk about the obvious —what a wonderful and successful year it has been, how proud I am of this team and how grateful I am to everyone who believes in and supports us.
All of those things are true, of course, but not particularly interesting to anyone except me and those I would pat on the back. And within a few sentences I have already said it.
There is line from the 1985 movie “Mask” that sticks with me, though I haven’t seen the film since I was a preteen.
Told once again that her son’s medical prognosis is dire, the besieged mom, played by Cher, retorts, “If I’d dug his grave every time one of you geniuses told me he was gonna die, I’d be eating [expletive] chop suey in China by now!”
She could have given up on her son as an infant. Instead, she kept doing the work of caring for him, and the two had years of happiness together.
I think of that quote every time I see another headline about how print media is dead, or how gay media is dead, or how at least gay print media is dead.
This issue of the GA Voice marks an important milestone for any small company, and especially a company in an industry that many claim is on the wane: It is Volume 2, Issue 1. Our first year is history, and we are forging full speed ahead into our second.
Like so many things in life, the GA Voice began with an ending. The seeds of the GA Voice were planted Nov. 16, 2009, when the staff of Southern Voice — the city’s LGBT newspaper for more than 20 years — learned that paper’s parent company, Window Media, had changed the locks and filed for bankruptcy.
It was an abrupt end to a long, slow decline brought on by a poor economy, declining advertising sales in print media, and most importantly, Window Media’s drive to expand the chain at all costs.
Our new print edition commemorates our first year with the latest in LGBT news and entertainment