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Attorney launching gay newspaper
Dec 21, 2009 (The Miami Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Broward criminal defense attorney Norm Kent, who began Express Gay News in 1999 and sold it four years later to Window Media -- which renamed it South Florida Blade and suddenly shut down last month -- will start a new gay newspaper in January.
The first issue of South Florida Gay News.com will be published about Jan. 25, coinciding with what would have been the 11th anniversary of Express Gay News, he said.
"SFGN will be published and distributed on Mondays, tabloid size, commencing in January of 2010, and over 12,000 copies will be distributed to 300 plus locations in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties," Kent said in a news release.
Kent has rented office space for the news operation in Wilton Manors. South Florida Gay News.com will feature South Florida columnists and correspondents including Jesse Monteagudo, formerly with The Weekly News; Pier Guidugli; Jennifer Vanasco; and New York-based gay activist Wayne Besen, who grew up in Broward County.
"We are a work still in progress," Kent said. "There are openings for creative talent."
A Web version of South Florida Gay News will launch before the print edition, Kent said.
Kent's news operation will compete directly with the well-known Mark's List brand, a South Florida-based online site that launched its own gay newspaper, Florida Agenda, immediately after South Florida Blade closed in November.
Mark's List hired many Blade workers to write and edit Florida Agenda.
"We've done so well with revenues that we decided to keep it a weekly," said publisher Mark Haines, adding that Florida Agenda is about to launch an online edition.
Does Haines believe there is advertising revenue to support two gay newspapers in South Florida?
He answered in one word: "No."
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