I had planned on writing a rather extensive post on the statement Metro Weekly issued on the death of The Washington Blade. This morning upon researching a few points I came across the following article from the Washington City Paper Blog, titled Metro WeeklyIssues Terrible Statement About Demise of Washington Blade written by Erik Wemple.
Wemple breaks down the very affirming and respectful beginning of Metro Weekly’s statement then there are the remaining paragraphs which he describes as “dancing on the grave” of a body that is still warm. Below is the statement made by Metro Weekly regarding The Washington Blade:
Metro Weekly statement on Washington Blade closing
Sean Bugg and Randy Shulman, co-publishers of Metro Weekly, Washington’s acclaimed gay and lesbian newsmagazine, today issued the following statement in response to the news that the Washington Blade has ceased publication.
“As longtime members of the D.C. LGBT community, as well as the community of journalists, we are always saddened to see a newspaper or magazine cease publication. While we offer our condolences to the staff of the Washington Blade, we also offer our congratulations on what they and their predecessors achieved over the course of four historic decades of LGBT journalism.
“All of us at Metro Weekly take great pride in serving our community, and we look forward to continuing our growth as the source for local LGBT news, politics and entertainment.”
Metro Weekly is an award-winning newsmagazine that has provided the best in local news, lifestyle and entertainment coverage to the Washington LGBT community since 1994. Co-published by Sean Bugg and Randy Shulman, the 55,000-readership magazine is available for free at more than 600 locations in the D.C. metropolitan area and online at www.metroweekly.com.
You need to do some investigating on how long the Blade has been attacking MW over many, many years. It might offer some perspective because it’s not a pretty story. Start your search with FishbowlDC and go from there.
I am familiar with the bad blood from one paper to the other. I would imagine most people who have been in DC for any length of time are more than familiar with it, though at the end of the day people are out of work and news sources around the country were shut down. I realize it is a cutthroat business and that being said MW would be stupid not to capitalize on all the potential extra advertising….but it’s a matter of timing I guess would be my point.