The South Florida Blade has closed, but soon the region will have not one, but two gay newspapers.
Window Media, which owned a number of GLBT newspapers, including the Blade and it's pervy little listing mag brother 411, abruptly closed its doors in November. In a nice web-to-print story, local gay entertainment website JumpOnMarksList.com bought both the Blade and 411, renaming them the Florida Agenda and Mark's List Magazine. There's no doubt Mark's List can sustain the integrity of the listing mag (which recently featured on its cover identical twins who have sex with one another on camera -- because it's a classy sort of publication), but can they run a publication that is supposed to turn out actual journalism?
If they don't, according to the Herald, there's another endeavor on the horizon: SouthFloridaGayNews.com. Despite its name there, will be a print edition, published tabloid-size and distributed Mondays throughout South Florida. The publisher is Norm Kent, who started Express Gay News in 1999. That paper, of course, was sold to Window Media in 2003 and was renamed the Blade.