Washington Blade returns after staff buy rights
Washington’s oldest gay newspaper has returned after staff clubbed together to buy the rights to its name.
The 40-year-old Washington Blade was relaunched as the DC Agenda last November after its publishing company Window Media ran into financial difficulties.
Following the collapse of the firm, the newspaper’s staff formed a new company called Brown Naff Pitts Omnimedia Inc to buy the rights and assets of the Blade.
They relaunched the newspaper as the DC Agenda to “carry on” the Blade’s work.
The DC Agenda recently surveyed readers to ask whether they would support returning to the name and branding of the Washington Blade and found a majority in favour.
Editor Kevin Naff said: “For more than 40 years the Washington Blade’s commitment to excellence in journalism made it a weekly ‘must read’ for the LGBTQ community locally and even worldwide.
“This is the tradition we have tried to emulate with DC Agenda. We are thrilled that the Washington Blade is once again owned locally.”
He added that the new company is working to restore online access to the paper’s electronic archive and the newspaper will return this Friday.
The Blade is thought to be the oldest gay newspaper in America. It was founded in 1969 as a single-sheet newsletter.
