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Advertisers Step Up Their Interest In Gay Audiences

Propelled by hit movies (think "Brokeback Mountain") and successful TV shows ("Will & Grace"), the advertising community is demonstrating increased support for gay-themed media. While there's no assurance that gay media will yield big audiences and big bucks--the new owners of The Advocate magazine are still struggling with their acquisition--the general opinion seems to support the notion that now's the time: consumers seem more tolerant of gay media and the gay community is more aggressive in announcing itself (and thus its considerable buying power). Among the gay-themed products in the pipeline or already out there, according to USA Today: Bravo, the cable channel owned by NBC Universal, is launching OutzoneTV.com, billed as the first broadband entertainment channel for gay viewers. Sony Music is teaming with Matt Farber, founder of MTV Networks' gay-themed cable channel Logo, to create a label featuring singers such as Beyoncé and Melissa Etheridge, both popular with gays. Last summmer Warner Books published a romance novel for gay men, Hot Sauce. It was written by a Boston couple: Scott Pomfret, a Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor, and Scott Whittier, an advertising copywriter.

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