Two days after Election Day, when newspapers and newsweeklies were analyzing
Bill Clinton’s victory and interpreting a net increase in the conservative
nutjob population in the House and Senate as a return to centrism, the headline
in The Texas Triangle reflected a different reality. “Sheriff
Margo!” it announced in large type. “Frasier, Maxey, Lee Win Races
in Austin, Houston,” the subhead continued, referring to newly elected
Travis County Sheriff Margo Frasier, and the re-elections of state Rep.
Glen Maxey and U.S. Representive Sheila Lee of Houston. All are strong supporters
of gay civil rights; Maxey is the first openly gay man in the Texas House
of Representatives, and Frasier is a founding member of the Austin’s Cornerstone
Gay and Lesbian Community Center. “On a night that saw the re-election
of a president who has endorsed legislation barring job discrimination based
on sexual orientation,” the lead read, “gay and lesbian Texans
late Tuesday also celebrated important election victories in congressional
and local races outside the state.”
The Triangle, in other words, is an exponent of cause journalism,
and the cause is the same one British pop singer Pete Shelley had in mind
14 years ago when he declaimed, “I’m a homo sapien too!” One of
a dozen or so gay newspapers in the U.S. that stresses hard news and the
objective voice, the Triangle recently survived a brush with extinction
when readers in Austin and Houston rushed in with donations to help the
owners cover losses. Following the announcement in late September by partners
Kay Longcope (editor/publisher) and Barbara Wohlgemuth (business manager)
that the paper would fold, contributions and a discount from the Austin
American-Statesman‘s printing operation got them back on their feet
after missing only one issue.
Like any cause publication, the Triangle differs from the mainstream
press in having a clear sense of mission. While most newspapers support
the continuation of the status quo by any means necessary without quite
saying that is what they are doing, the existence of a paper like the Triangle
revolves around advocating a significant change in the way society is
ordered. Even as it mimics the impartial methods of traditional newspapers,
the overtness of its agenda is refreshing. And even though most of its readers
doubtlessly agree on the goal of securing complete legal and social acceptance
by the hetero majority, they do not always agree on how to get there, and
they do not speak with a monolithic voice. Outsiders who pick up the paper
expecting unfiltered boosterism are in for a surprise.
Faced with the ethical desert of national party politics — one party
being more or less hostile and the other led by a once friendly president
who betrayed them on a couple of key issues — and a mixed bag of increased
acceptance and entrenched reaction in society at large, gay Americans have
little choice but to act as an interest group despite a diversity within
their ranks that can easily work against unified action. So it is hard to
overestimate the importance of a publication like the Triangle, both
as a source of news and as a link in a larger network.
Translating that value into viable fiscal terms is another matter. The
Triangle‘s near-demise illustrated the brutal exigencies of newspaper
economics. Despite thriving gay communities in Austin and Houston, increasing
support from mainstream advertisers, and a surprisingly high number of straight
readers, the Triangle has trouble staying afloat. Issues average
28 pages (up from 20 earlier this year), the ad-to-copy ratio cruises below
the desired 60-to-40%, and the nine staffers earn salaries in the low five
figures. The press run now hovers around 11,000 issues, down from a peak
of 15,000, and the pass-along readership is estimated at three people per
copy. The paper was just breaking even until this year, when printing costs
went up 33%, thanks to the forward march of the North American paper cartel.
Longcope, who was born in Midland and raised in Brownwood, capitalized
the Triangle venture in 1992 with buy-out money from her 22-year
stint at the Boston Globe, where she was one of the first reporters
in the U.S. to work a gay beat. The Triangle started breaking even
after only eight months, but Longcope and Wohlgemuth exhausted their savings
over the next few years, leaving nothing to cover the losses the paper began
showing this summer. There was no long-range business plan or investment
strategy, no other investors, and a shoestring will eventually fray.
David Elliot, a former American-Statesman reporter who served
as the Triangle‘s managing editor from August 1995 to last
July, recalls his torment over a $200 weekly freelancer budget that had
to be split five or six ways. He remembers Longcope taking a week off to
write a story for the Advocate, the successful national gay newspaper,
because she was out of personal funds after a couple of years of collecting
no salary. Elliot himself took a sizable cut in pay when he moved over from
the American-Statesman; his new job at People For the American Way
in Washington, D.C. has him back at the “lavish” $30,000 level.
His year at the Triangle was well spent, however. He organized the
paper’s news department, expanded its news coverage, and helped it develop
a clearer editorial voice. He “caught holy hell” when he endorsed
the police crackdown on sex in the public parks, a decision he defends because
“gay newspapers do have the responsibility of trying to save lives,
and that means stressing the message of safe sex over and over and over.”
So far his replacement, Dan Quinn, formerly the political reporter at the
Brazosport Facts, looks like a worthy successor. “He’s got great
instincts,” says Elliot. “He’s writing twice as much as I did,
and nobody ever accused me of being lazy.”
The voluntary contributors that helped the newspaper get back in action
last month were a heartening vote of confidence for Longcope, Wohlgemuth
and their staff, but their generosity places the enterprise in a delicate
position. Newspapers must pay their way; fundraising in the manner of a
nonprofit entity can be justified to cover an emergency, but it is something
you can only do once, especially when the donations are not tax-deductible.
Longcope is well aware of this, and she is optimistic about the Triangle‘s
prospects. A second ad salesperson for the Austin market was recently hired,
and the crisis attracted people with financial expertise to help develop
a business plan. Two fundraisers after the Christmas holidays are expected
to wipe out the current debt, and negotiations are underway with two potential
investors. A steering committee has been formed to offer a forum for input
from readers beyond the usual letters and phone calls, and there’s a new
fundraising committee, as well.
But Longcope emphasizes that taking the venture to nonprofit status is
unthinkable because that would mean competing for money with vital nonprofits
such as AIDS Services of Austin and the HIV Wellness Center, along with
spending daunting amounts of time raising money, the nonprofit manager’s
curse. She is convinced of the Triangle‘s potential for growth,
both in Austin’s burgeoning suburbs and in Houston beyond the Montrose neighborhood.
(Because so many gays are clustered in Montrose, distribution in the larger
city is a good deal less expensive than in Austin.)
What the Triangle really needs is another Wyatt Roberts. When
the right-wing radio personality and American Family Association mogul attacked
the Triangle’s mainstream advertisers in 1995, a sort of wingnut-response
backlash immediately occurred. “We sold a good amount of advertising
off of that,” Elliot remembers, noting that when Wyatt’s supporters
picketed First Texas Honda, the dealer had the best December in its history:
more terrific publicity. Unfortunately, Roberts lost his radio spot on KIXL
in April, and is now reduced to faxing out press releases taking credit
for the cancellation of television shows whose ratings have tanked and the
eradication of porn magazines and rolling papers from Diamond Shamrock stores
(he took credit for the Triangle‘s recent misfortune as well). Everybody
should be so lucky as to have enemies like that.
This article appears in November 22 • 1996 and November 22 • 1996 (Cover).