I was working in my editorial logs the other day and noticed that there are only three regular issues left this year, before our year-end Yellow Pages Edition. We’ve got this one, the Holiday Gift Guide, and the Year in Review with Lavender Community Awards. That is shocking. It’s just like the world of publishing, though, to be thinking about things that aren’t seasonal, getting press releases for Valentine’s Day back on the Fourth of July. More of a way of life than a song, let’s do the time warp again.
Because we publish every two weeks, we might be working on stories that are going to be next month or the month after, or we might be dashing to get a story that just happened into the issue going to press. It’s all about being as nimble as we can be. In the print issue, we’re more about narratives than news, more about positives than negatives, more about local than national or global. These factors have helped Lavender be a lasting publication in Minnesota for over 20 years.
But wait, there’s more.
There’s so much more. Electronically, you can get our magazine on the website, and you can also get it delivered directly to your iPad and iPhone by Newsstand. Free as always. We are posting fresh content to our website, www.lavendermagazine.com, frequently. Sophia Hantzes is out there covering your events with her camera, posting photo galleries to the website as she goes. John Townsend and Shane Lueck are talking about a number of performances and productions; and Shane also posts up interviews with national celebrities and Crowdfund Roundups on the regular. Our Sports Page features events, photos, scores, and stories of our local GLBT sports organizations and leagues. The Lavender Yellow Pages are there for you to be able to find businesses and services that support this community. And our Online Calendar, which you can add your events to for free, is one of the most popular destinations on the website, as is the Contests and Promotions section. Bookmark our website and give us a visit when you’re making your rounds online; you never know what might be new on there for you. Follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lavendermagazine) and Twitter (@lavmag) to find out as soon as we publish new stories on the website as well as other important information.
We don’t talk about it in the magazine much, but we’re also the people behind Big Gay News on our website, on Twitter (@biggaynews), and as the first gay podcast. The Twitter following is close to 78,000 at this point and grows each time I glance at it. The Big Gay News podcast began in 2006 and has been broadcast to the world nearly every weekday since. Bradley Traynor was its first producer and host, Pierre Tardif took over the reins a few years ago, and now I’ll be the primary voice with Shane Lueck taking a day or two a week as well. I’m enjoying the new challenges in not only learning more about the global community, but also more about podcasting, itself, and how to pronounce words like “Södersjukhuset” like I had to do on my first day on the job…without sounding like Marge from Fargo.
So, what was I saying about there being only three issues left of this year? Never mind. The point gets lost in the shuffle.
Thank you for finding us, following us, engaging with us, and keeping us going all year ‘round, for the past 20 years.
With you and with thanks,
Andy