The purchasing power and brand loyalty oflesbians and gay men has been thorough-ly researched, documented and reportedover the past several decades. CommunityMarketing, Inc., a research, marketing and

communications rm established in 1992,

succinctly states on its website:

“The facts are plain: gay men and les-bians travel more, own more homes andcars, spend more on electronics, and havethe largest amount of disposable incomeof any niche market. Undaunted by eventsin the news, gay and lesbian consumersmake up at least 10% of the consumermarket. Critically, their dollars go to products, services and destinations that recognize their unique buying preferencesand offer them differentiated value.”

GLBT buying power in the United States

in 2009 was estimated to be $712 billion,

according to the research and marketingcompany Witeck-Combs Communica-tions. That number is expected to rise to

$835 billion in 2011. Results from a poll

conducted by Witeck-Combs and Harris

Interactive in November 2009 underscore

the extraordinary discretionary income

gay men and lesbians have to inuence

the marketplace and illustrate that even inthe midst of a struggling economy gaysstill spend.

In a press release from Dec. 7, 2009,

Witeck-Combs stated:

The nationwide survey of 2,516 U.S.adults, (ages 18 and over) was conduct-ed online between Nov. 2 and 11, 2009,by Harris Interactive, a global market

research and consulting frm, in conjunc

-tion with Witeck-Combs Communica-tions, Inc., a strategic public relations

and marketing communications frm with

special expertise in the GLBT market.The survey revealed that compared to what they spent last year on holiday gifts, 29%of GLBT adults planned to spend more. In comparison, only 9% of heterosexualadults planned to spend more.

The GLBT community in Atlanta is bothlarge and active. In the American Com-munity Survey (US Census Bureau) of

2005, Atlanta ranked third in cities withthe largest GLBT population at 12.8%.Only San Francisco (15.4%) and Seattle(12.9%) ranked higher. There are 250+

GLBT and AIDS-related organizationswithin the metro area alone and Pride at-

tendance has placed Atlanta in the top ve

in the country for well over a decade.Atlanta was named “America’s gayestcity” by “The Advocate” in its January

2010 issue. Reporter Mike Albo count

-ed points based on same-sex householdsper capita, statewide marriage equality,

gay elected ofcials, gay dating per sin

-gle male population, gay bars per capita,

cruising spots per capita, and gay lmsin Netix favorites to determine rst

place. Albo explained that social andcultural life put Atlanta at the top of theAdvocate’s list.“Atlanta is undoubtedly our gayest city

- with 29 gay bars here, there’s a reason

it’s dubbed Hotlanta,” Albo wrote. “At-lanta guys are hunky, the ladies are gra-cious, the gay sports leagues are seriouslywell organized, and its housewives (andtheir gay BFFs, complete with handbagsand heels) are now camp icons. And whodoesn’t love the sweet lilt of a Georgia ac-cent on a knockout guy or gal?”While the article in The Advocate waslow on science and high on camp, it

nevertheless conrms what both activ

-ists and the party crowd have knownfor several decades: Atlanta in its ownlaid back style is the epicenter of GLBTlife in the South and can hold its ownas both a bastion of civil rights and gayculture with any other city in the coun-

try. In 2007, Atlanta won the “Dinner ofthe Year” award from the Human RightsCampaign (HRC) based on attendanceand fundraising. HRC is the nation’s

largest LGBT civil rights organization

with some 700,000 members and sup

porters. Corporate sponsors of the HRC

Dinner in Atlanta have included Coca-Cola, Delta, Home Depot, Bank ofAmerica, Wachovia and Cox Enterpris-es among others. Atlanta LGBT Prideis one of the largest in the country withmajor corporate sponsorships and atten-

dance in excess of 100,000 every year.

Georgia Voice, in addition to loyal local

advertisers, has within its rst few issues

garnered marketing dollars from nationalcorporations and organizations such asOrbitz, Bridgestone, Miller Lite/Coors,GlaxoSmithKline, US Census Bureauand Frito-Lay.

GLBT Market strongdespite economy

When Southern Voice closed on Nov. 16,2009, it left Atlanta’s lesbian, gay, bisexu-al and transgender communities without a

voice for the rst time in almost 22 years.

An institution since its inception in 1988,Southern Voice offered its loyal reader-ship a professional and highly regardedpublication that disseminated local andnational news, timely information onevents and organizations and commen-

tary on the news of the day. Protable

since 1993, the free weekly newspaperwas sold to Window Media in 1997 andenjoyed continued success for over a de-cade. Plagued by management problemsthat were exacerbated by a deep recession,Southern Voice was forced to cease pub-lication. Within a few days, former SoVoEditor Laura Douglas-Brown and origi-nal SoVo founder (1988) Christina Cashdeveloped a plan to launch a new mediaoutlet that would surpass the mission andthe success of Southern Voice. They helda community meeting to introduce andname the new publication, established a

corporate structure, identied and hired

an experienced staff, and developed newbusiness models for a LGBT media out-let that would help lead its readershipinto the future. The

Georgia Voice

web-site launched on March 5, 2010 and the

rst print edition hit the streets on March

19, 2010. History has come full circle.

HISTORY &

Making History

Christina Cash, Publisher

The web and print versions of GeorgiaVoice work in concert to give readers acomprehensive LGBT media outlet thatprovides both immediate access to infor-mation and the analysis and perspectiveto understand how it impacts all of us.

We publish daily online and in print everyother week. The website, www.thegavoice.com, is a robust web portal for LGBT news,events and community interaction. Updatedmultiple times daily, it provides breakingnews as it happens, developments in ongoingstories as they evolve, the day’s top events andheadlines, expansive video and photo galler-ies, and a directory of community organiza-tions. The Georgia Voice website works inconjunction with strong social media effortsincluding Facebook, Twitter and YouTube tokeep in constant contact with readers and dis-seminate our coverage as quickly and widelyas possible. Currently, GA Voice has morethan 1,500 fans and growing every day. Ourwebsite, though very new, has had 15, 106unique visitors (May 13, 2010) who spendmore than three minutes on the site. In ad-

dition, our bounce rate is signicantly under

industry standard.Complimenting the compelling content atwww.thegavoice.com, a variety of onlineadvertising options give local and nationalcompanies the opportunity to engage dailywith an active, savvy readership. Advertisershave a choice of four placements and receivediscounts on web advertising if they alsopurchase print advertising.The print edition of the Georgia Voice offersnews, analysis, features and commentaryin an engaging, news-magazine style. TheGeorgia Voice publishes every other Fridaywith a current press run of 6,500 copies anda readership of 16,000 in the Atlanta metroarea and Savannah.Publishing every other week, rather thanweekly, was an intentional decision that al-lows the Georgia Voice to offer what is toooften missing in today’s information-satu-rated society: context. Thanks to the Internetand the 24/7 cable news cycle, people areoften bombarded with an endless stream ofinformation. There is no shortage of head-lines, but readers remain starved for insight,analysis, perspective, and time to sit back,make sense of it all, and develop and sharetheir own opinions. Our longer news cycleallows Georgia Voice to offer readers moredepth than is often possible in the breakingnews-driven world of the web, as we havemore time for more analysis and investiga-tive reporting.The Georgia Voice,LLC, is managed byits co-founders, Chris-tina Cash and LauraDouglas-Brown, bring-ing almost 25 yearscombined experienceto lead both the edito-rial division and busi-ness division of thecompany. ChristinaCash founded Southern Voice in 1988 andserved at various times as publisher andeditor until 1997 when the newspaper wassold to Window Media. During her tenure,Southern Voice grew from a very small start-

up to a protable business with revenue in

excess of $1,200,000. Cash has vast expe-rience and knowledge in all aspects of thealternative newspaper publishing business.Laura Douglas-Brown served as a reporterand news editor for Southern Voice from1997-2006. In 2006, she was named Editorand served in that role until the closure ofSouthern Voice in November 2009. She isknown in the community for her fairness ofreporting, her high standards of journalismand her superb writing skills. Brown is re-sponsible for the hiring and management ofthe editorial and art departments. The staffshe has assembled for the Georgia Voiceincludes three former employees of South-ern Voice who serve in their same capacity.A Board of Advisors comprised of experts in

the elds of accounting and taxes, digital me

-dia, sales and marketing and editorial servesas a resource to both staff and management.

Complete Coverage

EXPERIENCE MATTERS

Laura Douglas-Brown,Editor-in-Chief