If you have been reading us since 2003, you would know that I wrote the publisher’s column for the first nine months of the magazine’s life. After that Rob took over. He knew I had a lot of work on my hands starting the magazine, but he also hated having to proof my articles. He pretty much rewrote chunks of them before taking over writing the publisher’s column. So hopefully our current editor, Janine, will be able to handle what I send her each month.
I am reintroducing the publisher’s column because, I feel, that so many things change within the community that sometimes we either can’t do a whole article about it – due to time constraints – or don’t have enough writers for the articles that need to be written. As I am out talking to people in the community, I often hear things like I didn’t know that [insert name of town] is doing Pride or I didn’t know that straight bars did gay events. So my attempt will be to to talk about these items in the column every edition, and to follow up post event with summation and pics.
12th Anniversary
Last year, on the 11th anniversary of the magazine, my partner in the magazine and editor, Rob Diaz-Marino, announced that he would be leaving the magazine at the end of 2014. I knew I would have a lot more work on my shoulders but wow: that was an understatement. Rob has helped on some things throughout the year, which I have been grateful for, like the voiceover on the ads we have running on OutTV, some graphic design work, car rides (remember I don’t fully drive yet), and a number of other things, but it has been pretty much non-stop work for the whole year. Having Janine Eva Trotta doing the copy-editing has helped. She is a godsend to what I do around here. Jason Clevett and Stephen Lock being around for just about all the 12 years the magazine has operated is great to see in this industry. I would also like to thank all the other writers who have written for the magazine over the last year.
Running a magazine is not easy. One thing that helped was that GayCalgary.com, as a website, was running seven years prior to the start of the printed version of the magazine. So we had a brand, subscriber base and a site that the magazine could expand on. When Rob announced last year that we were going to stop printing hard copies, it shocked lots of our readers. Over the next months, many other publications would announce major changes: FFWD Weekly, which had been printing alternative news in Calgary for 18 years, stopped printing at the start of this year; Xtra announced that they were going digital-only as dailyxtra.ca; and OutWord Magazine in Winnipeg announced they would be reducing to quarterly publications.
Judging by the sparse racks I see in the free magazine shelves, it looks like several other magazines have also disappeared. Making the move to digital-only was the right direction for us to take, especially considering Alberta’s current economic climate. Being based out of Calgary, with the name GayCalgary Magazine, it’s proven difficult to get large advertisers on board monthly from ad agencies. Although we can demonstrate that we receive traffic from across Canada – and are the most popular online LGBT magazines in the country according to the third party site Alexa.com – it is hard to make agencies change their mind on advertising with us. One thing I was told in a conversation I had a couple years back is that they are only looking to advertise to the LGBT communities of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal – the LGBT market in Calgary, or even Alberta, is too small for them.
When you hear something like that, and then realize that a publication like Xtra had also gone solely digital because the advertising income was not enough to support printing anymore in Vancouver or Toronto, you start to realize how hard it must be across the country for LGBT media to survive. Some LGBT magazines rely on income from dating sites/companies. Even though GayCalgary started as Men For Men BBS in 1992, which was a pre-Internet dating service, once the early Internet sites started becoming popular, I decided to concentrate more on the magazine and covering community news than competing with those sites. Surprisingly enough, those sites still exist, but are rarely used or updated. With current Apps like Scruff, Growlr and Grindr, or mobile friendly websites, it’s proving wise that I did not try to continue upgrading Men For Men over the years – plus Rob might have killed me trying to run both projects simultaneously.
Just think of how many gay dating apps are out there with no one on them. How much money was spent to do those apps or websites without getting the traffic needed to even break even financially? So for GayCalgary to operate, without a partner dating site to help cover the costs, we need advertisers and we need to run tight. That is why most of the work was done by Rob and I with our freelance writers doing the articles. Without Rob, it is just me doing most of the work, so having more people on board would be ideal.
People always want to try to help us with the magazine, so I am putting it out here: help us get advertisers. A poor economy means they are harder to find, but we are hoping that our loyal readers will help bring new advertisers to us. Don’t forget to support our advertisers and supporters too! Shop in their stores, attend their events, visit their website or call the ones that have a phone number only. We are also looking for more writers, and hopefully a sales person to take care of finding more advertisers. I don’t like getting behind on things but, over the year, I did fall behind on things like getting through the 300 to 500 emails I receive per day, tagging photos in the photo gallery, minor website updates, and so forth. Not having hard copies to distribute did take close to a week’s work off my plate.
Our online readership is still the same as it was last year. We are still in the top 3,500 most popular websites that Canadians visit, in the top 25 sites in Alberta based that Albertans visit, and the top 10 Calgary based websites that Calgarians visit, according to Alexa.com. That was a big worry for us – that maybe the readership would drop – but it did not. Visitors to the website are still spending an average of half an hour perusing, whereas on most media sites, they usually only last a couple of minutes. Our digital subscribers are over 20,000 and it keeps growing.
So achieving 12 years of readership, especially now, is something to celebrate!
Summer Recap, Edmonton Coronation, Calgary Pride and Camera Failures
August to the first weekend of October is the craziest time of year for Alberta’s LGBT Community, and thus the magazine. Amid those weekends Rob was really happy that he was not part of the magazine anymore, so he could enjoy himself and take in the events, oppose to working hard covering them.
August 8th began the Great Canadian Bear Weekend III in Edmonton. The weekend included an afternoon at the West Edmonton Mall Water Park, Bear Bingo, Mr. Alberta Bear Competition and more. It was great to see guys from across Alberta attend this event. Hot weather meant wet fur. The guys did a great job keeping all the bears entertained and, of course, there was lots of food. Daren Dare Behr Kavich was cooking all three days portions so ample they still had leftovers. Check out the photos at http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1021 .
Red Deer Pride was the weekend of August 15th. Rain meant the cancellation of some outdoor events. The Friday night show was a Night of Comedy at the Scott Black Theatre, performed by the Bull Skit Comedy troop, and it was all improv. It was really funny: the actors were drinking on stage so, as the night went on, you could see it was starting to affect them. The Saturday night dance was held at the Legion, a larger venue than prior years. Drag queens from around Alberta performed alongside drag kings from Calgary’s Fake Moustache Troup. Photos can be seen at http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1026 .
The ISCWR Coronation XL in Edmonton was on the weekend of August 22nd. Coronations can be really boring when you are standing behind a video camera; you can’t talk to people, or even get up to stretch. So, with Rob off, this was the first year we took only photos. Sadly, there were some amazing numbers performed, and I wish I could enjoy them again.
During the number of the third set, my Canon PowerShot SX50HS camera decided to fail. All it wanted to do is take solid black photos. The most critical photos of the night are the step down numbers of the out-going emperor and empress and the crowning of the new monarchs. Without the main camera working, I had to improvise and use my Nokia 920 Windows Phone with the portable video light to take the remaining photos. My 4-year-old smart phone has always done amazing photos, so we were able to pull it off. Once I got back home, the Canon camera was sent for repair (I always buy an extended warranty on cameras). With the amount of photos Rob and I take at events, just about every camera has ended up in the shop. Photos can be seen at http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1009 .
The first event of Calgary Pride Weekend was Derrick Barry – Britney Spears impersonator – at Cowboys Nightclub. The event was very well attended for a Wednesday night show. I had with me an older Canon that Rob used to use and a replacement. As the show started I realized the reason why the last camera was replaced. It would actually fail after about 3 or 4 photos are taken and you would have to pop the battery out to get it working again. So I switched over to Rob’s Canon but, for the standard of photos we take now, it could not keep up. We still got some great shots, but I know we could have done better. You can check them out at http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1042 .
I knew that I would not be able to handle the rest of the Pride events without a better camera so checked in with BestBuy. They were nice enough to offer me a temp Canon PowerShot SX60HS until mine came back from repair.
Thursday night was the Pro Pride event, where LGBT professionals and allies from corporate Calgary get together and celebrate Pride at Hotel Arts http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1040 and then Factory 112 – Head Shots at a new venue called Loft 112 http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1041 .
Friday night was also jam packed. Starting at Wild Pride at the Standard http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1037 . I popped out to cover the annual Homo Hop, held at Loft 112 http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1038 and then over to True Colors – Pride Edition at the Night Owl, which was in the old Boyztown Space http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1039 .
Calgary Pride weekend was mostly a rainy mess. Other big outdoor events were getting cancelled but, on Saturday afternoon, the Dyke and Trans* March still went on. The attendees walked very fast and close together to cover each other with umbrellas. The street festival was moved to the Old Y Centre where the drenched had a chance to dry out and watch some great live music and drag kings http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1043 .
PurePride at Flames Central was Saturday night the only event that evening for me to cover. At close to 1,500 in attendance, the place was sold out and packed. Everything was going on without a hitch until the headliner, International Superstar Dev, started to do her live numbers. Part way in she grabs a bottle of water and throws its contents at the audience. I received most of the dousing, along with the loaner camera from BestBuy! She decided to sit down on the edge of the stage right beside me and totally ignored me as I was wiping down the camera whilst glaring at her. I was so dripping wet that I had to go off to the side of the stage just to dry off, but the camera was fine http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1047 .
The rain held out for the Pride Parade and Street Festival on Sunday, though it was cold and overcast. Pride Calgary received so many parade entries this year they actually needed to turn groups away. The Street Festival was a mud pit with wood boards covering the worst spots. Though people were getting stuck, they were still enjoying themselves http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1050 .
Right after the street festival, I ran over to Broken City for the SHARP Foundation fundraiser http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1057 , then over to the sold out event, Hot Mess Pride Patio Party at the National on 8th which, for having an outdoor heated patio able to hold 550 people, was packed http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1060 , as was the Summer Send-off with DJ Ruby Rose that night at Cowboys, with a sold out crowd of 1,200 http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1061 .
Last event of Pride was on Monday afternoon: the Donnie Peters Memorial Cut-a-thon at Tomkins Park http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1048 . By the weekend’s end I had taken close to 15,000 photos and I know there were events I just was not able to attend!
Weekend of September 12th was the Evolution Wonderlounge’s 2nd Anniversary. Saturday night I did a video interview with Ricky Roman and Levi Karter inside the bar. During the interview I asked if the guys had any new tattoos since it had been a year or so since I had last seen them. Levi had nothing new, but pulled down Ricky’s shorts to reveal something not PG. So there is a censored and uncensored version of the interview; you will need to sign up for a free digital subscription to watch the uncensored version http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1062 .
Medicine Hat Pride was on September 19th. During Calgary Pride I was told that the event was cancelled but, with one week’s notice, I received the news it was back on http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1068 .
Edmonton Expo was held on the weekend of September 26th. This year we decided not to have a booth, leaving MarsTonic and I able to wander the floor and take photos of the great cosplay outfits. It was a nice change. MarsTonic was the only writer again with me covering the Edmonton Expo, and she did six great video interviews. She never ceases to impress me with what she does with 10 to 15 minutes notice before an interview http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1035 .
The last event from this busy stretch was Banff Pride on October 3rd, the last Pride in Alberta for 2015. The drag show and dance at Wild Bills is always sold out with over 500 people attending http://www.gaycalgary.com/pa1073 .
By this time my camera was finally ready for pick up. Its repair tag read: #998ACUNT8. After such a busy season, it was great to end it on a good laugh.
Things happening in November
Congratulations to Goliaths and the Texas Lounge on their 28th Anniversary, the party for which takes place on November 26th. Sadly though, we loose Buddies nightclub in Edmonton on November 21st. Woody’s will remain open and will have some of the staff brought over to it. Buddies had been running in that location for six years, but 21 years in total. Something new in Calgary’s gay nightclub scene, Backwards Nightclub, will be opening by year’s end. I have walked through the space and it is going to be amazing. The club will be located at 628 8th Ave SW; you can check out their website at http://www.backwards.club .
