'Out' lays off its entire editorial staff, but editor Aaron Hicklin wants to hire 'most' back into his new startup
'Out' magazine.
11:34 am Apr. 18, 201222
The editorial staff of the influential gay lifestyle magazine Out is being laid off with one month's severance as of Friday, Capital has learned.
But according to Out editor-in-chief Aaron Hicklin, it's more complicated than that.
Hicklin said he will hire back an unspecified number of editors on a contract basis into a new company he is founding called Grand Editorial. It will operate the magazine as a contractor for Here Media, sister company of Regent Entertainment Inc., which acquired Out in 2008.
Hicklin told Capital there will be no reduction in the frequency of the magazine or other major changes to the content.
"This was not a cost-cutting measure," he said.
He said he'd been hatching plans to launch Grand for awhile. Having spent six years running Out, he informed Here that he was forming a new venture, a custom-content shop that would work on projects like producing magazines for corporate clients, he said.
Out is Hicklin's first, and so far only, client. He said he plans to offer long-term contracts at Grand to "most" of his 12 editorial employees at Out. Should any of them take it, he said, the gig will come with flexible hours and the opportunity to work on other projects in the Grand stable, but not full-time salaries or benefits. (They will be contracted freelancers.)
Hicklin, who previously edited Blackbook, is negotiating office space in Carroll Gardens for the firm.
"I felt I was at a place where I had enough experience and relationships to parlay that into an agency that would provide a sort of editorial consultancy and content for other titles and corporate clients," he said.
Hicklin said he doesn't have any outside investors and that revenue at this point will be project-based, a prospect that has been met with gentle skepticism from some Out staffers: Here Media has had problems paying its freelancers and vendors over the past several years. There is an outstanding fraud lawsuit, meanwhile, against Regent.
Reached by phone, a company spokesman said the executive handling the Out arrangement was not immediately available for comment. We'll update when we hear back.
"With any startup, there are always risks," Hicklin said. "But for lots of publications, midsize publications especially, I think it makes sense to be a little more innovative in thinking about how they find ways to continue creating high quality content while being mindful of the huge transition the media is going through."
UPDATE: The Here Media spokesman, Mark Umbach, tells us in an email: "The company continues to make great strides in paying down its contributors and liabilities. As a common business practice we do not comment on any pending litigation."
He also sent along a statement from Joe Landry, senior vice president and group publisher of Here Media: "The media landscape is a rapidly evolving. I’m confident that the model we’re utilizing will offer us the best opportunities to remain competitive. We continue to have complete confidence in Mr. Hicklin and his team, most of which will continue to work with him on the OUT brand as he adds new staffers to continue to grow and evolve the brand.”
UPDATE 2: Here's the official press release about Hicklin's new company...
April 18, 2012 – After six years as Editor-in-Chief of Out magazine and Out.com – with a resume that includes Editor-in-Chief at fashion and arts magazine, BlackBook, and executive editor at men’s title Gear – Aaron Hicklin announced today that he is launching a full-service editorial agency. Grand Editorial is aimed at creating new efficiencies in the editorial process by providing customized content for a range of consumer titles and corporate clients. In addition to managing Grand Editorial, Hicklin will continue overseeing the editorial content and mission of Out magazine and its affiliated websites.
“I’m thrilled that Here Media, Out’s parent company, sees the value in this exciting new initiative,” says Hicklin, adding: “I’m profoundly committed to Out’s ongoing evolution, and beyond happy to be able to continue doing what I love best while also having the opportunity to explore new ways of thinking about the relationship between editorial and publishing.”
Brian Gorman, founder of Lords Hotel, is working with Hicklin as president of Grand Editorial and will spearhead business development and marketing efforts. He brings to the company years of experience in brand building from a variety of backgrounds including hotels and real estate development. Gorman, who will remain CEO of Lords Hotel, says “We feel there is a tremendous amount of opportunity in the editorial space to bring fresh ideas and content to companies looking to establish their own unique voice. I am excited to be a part of this venture and utilize my network of contacts to help Grand Editorial achieve its goals.”
Hicklin added, “Grand Editorial will include familiar faces and core talent from Out. It’s no secret that the media landscape is changing rapidly, and I think our talent will find this new approach both more flexible as well as empowering. I’m looking forward to producing some very special issues and digital initiatives for Out in the fall, while offering a unique blend of editorial consultancy and customized content to a wide range of new clients.”
Ed. Note: This item originally stated that Here Media is a subsidiary of Regent Entertainment Inc. They are separate companies with a business relationship.
This is definitely not a cost cutting measure, except for the part about no longer having to pay them fixed salaries or offer them any benefits or, really, the guarantee of any work at all.
kml4@I agree. The new company is basically just going to run on freelancers that they don't have to offer benefits or salaries, and like in the past, will pay extremely late or never.
So, I'm guessin' that cretin will be supporting and voting for little mitt. He likes screwing over and firing people too.
How is OUT "influential" outside its activist bubble readership?
somehow I knew this was coming when the last issue arrived and it was so thin it. swell, another subscription wasted.
How very nice and sleazy of Hicklin-- offering a job that finds a way around providing health benefits. Such a brave stand for a gay company to sink to the level of other moneygrubbing weasels. Such progress. I guess he doesn't bother keeping up with minor issues like healthcare in the US.
If Out warranted more than a 2-minute thumb-through I might be more upset.
really?? no full time salaries or benefits for the staff providing the content?? cancel my subscription.
They'll probably get what they pay for and the magazine will suffer and eventually be another statistic. Hope nobody is paying for subscriptions because there is a real danger of losing your money (remember HERO magazine??)
They ruined The Advocate and now Out! I remember Hero Magazine and soon, there won't be ANY LGBT magazine or anything print media.
Why does Here Media persist in this fiction that it is not owned by Regent Entertainment? According to SEC filings, Stephen Jarchow, Regent's chairman, is Here's chairman and owns 51 percent of Here, and Paul Colichman, Regent's CEO, is Here's CEO and owns 35 percent of Here. Here and Regent also share the same CFO. Colichman and Jarchow are the majority owners of Regent. The two guys who own Regent own 86 percent of Here. That pretty much makes you a subsidiary.
http://lasuperiorcourt.org/civilCaseSummary/index.asp
Enter case number: BC454051
Regent and Here Media are the same fraudulent company no matter what they say. By entering this deal, Aaron Hicklin is officially, on the books, their business crony. There's no denying it now.
I was such a Good Gay for the longest time and subscribed to Out, Advocate, Instinct and XY, plus picked up Genre and a couple others here and there. Now, the gayest thing I get in the mail is GQ, and I really don't miss any of these magazines (although Instinct was fun...it's still around, isn't it?) I still refuse to believe that print is a dying medium, but these niche magazines are. That and the fact that their customer service is terrible. I wanted to buy a back issue of last month's OUT - just last week - and was rudely informed by the circulation department that I should buy a copy off eBay.
I have long since swithed to INSTINCT!
Editers, we don't need no stinking editers.
So we can't even spell Editer.
LOL
Terrible. Getting rid of the print Advocate (and forcing you to buy it with Out) was a debacle too. Oh well. GJ ruining what was once an institution.
Dave, obviously anyone can see it's a shell company. For legal purposes though, you have to be precise. If I had the byline, I'd write it like this too, to avoid a libel suit (nothing beats a C&D letter - hence why I don't use my full name on some of my sites). Financially, having overlapping owners does not mean the company owns it.
I give OUT a week or two until they offshore all the articles to Mongolia. They can afford a TLD like Gay.com, but they can't afford a 40 hour work week for a few employees.
Ah, Out, full of those Convenient Progressives.
Freelancers: Be very wary of writing for Aaron Hicklin (read: don't). When he was editor of Black Book it was impossible to get paid, and the same was true of when he edited Out. I wrote for both as a freelancer and was never paid for either assignment, despite valiant attempts.
If you are using a touched-up 6-yr-old picture of yourself because you're losing hair faster than brain cells, and telling the media "this is not a cost-cutting measure" when that's exactly the deal (a deal you worked slickly to your advantage with scary hereRegent), then there's a special place in karmic hell for you, Grand sir. And what now for The Advocate? That magazine's so bummed out, guys my age (and what chick's even commenting here since boyvilleOut is on the cutting room floor?) have to borrow old issues to see it had totally rad features and awesome q&a interviews. Wake up! Blackball Mr. Black Book!
Thank good I read Zeus
Who reads this stuff anyway?
This seems like a conflict of interest situation. Am I to understand that he fired the editorial staff of Out magazine, but will hire them under HIS new company Grand Editorial and farm them back out, for a price, to Out magazine to write articles??? Seems like a win-win for him. He seems to run counter to the assumed position (no pun intended) that OUT magazine represents similar interests of the readers. Corporate greed, manipulation, and capitalizing at his employees expense? Politics aside, I would have to conclude that OUT magazine has lost all credibility with a hypocrite like this at the helm.
To UNSUBSCRIBE TO OUT and ADVOCATE. Dwight Whitton 233 W 99th St Apt 9c NY NY 10025. Thank you for your special attention. D. Whitton