The ''South Florida Blade'', formerly ''The Express Gay News'', was a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

and

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

(

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

) newspaper in the southern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

area. The ''Express'' was a member of the

National Gay Newspaper Guild The National Gay Newspaper Guild is an organization of LGBT newspapers located in the United States. Through Rivendell Media, the guild gathers statistics on the readership of the member publications. Member publications *''Bay Area Reporter'' * ...

. The ''Express'' was founded in 2000. In 2003, it was acquired by

Window Media Window Media LLC was a gay press publishing holding company that acquired and operated gay and lesbian newspapers and magazines in the 2000s. In 2009 it ceased operations following bankruptcy. Publications Newspapers * '' South Florida B ...

, the largest publisher of gay/lesbian weekly newspapers in the United States. On August 28, 2008, ''Express Gay News'' underwent a drastic rebranding effort, changing format and name. The newer version of the paper, called ''The South Florida Blade'', was edited by

Dan Renzi ''The Real World: Miami'' is the fifth season of MTV's reality television series '' The Real World'', which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives a ...

. According to Window Media, its circulation was approximately 20,000. In 2009 Window Media shut down and shortly thereafter the paper was re-organized with most of the same staff by Mark Haines as ''The Florida Agenda''. In 2010 the original publisher and founder of ''The Express Gay News'', Norm Kent, launched a new newspaper and website ''

South Florida Gay News ''South Florida Gay News'' is a South Florida-based alternative weekly newspaper published by Norm Kent Norman Elliott Kent. (born 18 October 1949 in Brooklyn, New York) is a South Florida criminal defense attorney, publisher and radio ta ...

.''

Financial woes

Avalon Equity Fund, an investment fund that owns several gay media outlets including ''Washington Blade'', ''South Florida Blade'', ''411 Magazine'', ''David Atlanta'', ''Southern Voice'' (SOVO) and ''Genre'' magazine were found to be in a condition the Small Business Administration (SBA) refers to as capital impairment. This means that Avalon did not maintain the necessary outside investments required under the terms of loans borrowed from the SBA totaling $38M. A lawsuit filed by SBA revealed Avalon had little or no outside capital left due to divestiture by investors, losses in revenue or asset values or a combination of the three. Avalon Equity Fund is in receivership with SBA, which will allow SBA to sell off its assets to satisfy the loans. In November 2009, the paper was shut down because of the financial status of its parent company, Window Media and its majority stockholder,

Avalon Equity Partners Avalon Equity Partners is a New York-based investment group that invested in media, communications and information services industries. In 1999, it formed its first fund from private individuals and the Small Business Administration and in 2006 it ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Archives
2000 establishments in Florida 2009 disestablishments in Florida Defunct newspapers published in Florida LGBT in Florida LGBT-related newspapers published in the United States Publications disestablished in 2009 Newspapers established in 2000