UNZIPPED Magazine Folds

[JackTwist]

Another popular gay mens magazine closes up shop: http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=5508&MediaType=1&Category=26

 

http://covers.magazine-agent.com/images/image.aspx?i=COVER0028382.JPG&h=650%5Bimg%5Dhttp%3A//images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005QDWN.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg[/img]http://www.magazineline.com/images/covers/JKFbig.jpg

[Guest OCBeachbody]

Wow.... that is bad, So far within the last year or so we lost Unzipped, The WashingBlade, Southern Blade, etc... ouch.... lets keep our fingers crossed for the other big magazines to stay in business!

[Toulouse]

The Advocate Trimmed Down to an Insert...

 

That really sucks. I liked Unzipped. Also surprising is that this same article goes on to report:

 

"The Advocate, the gay media leader, will now be trimmed down from a standalone magazine to a 32-page insert bundled inside its gay culture focused counterpart Out...Freelance writers and photographers working for The Advocate have gone months without getting paid."

[rvwnsd]

What a coincidence. Yesterday I was gathering my tax records and found a file folder of old porn magazines. I haven't looked at a mag in ages. I didn't even know unzipped was still around.

[+ bigjoey]

Remember when this was on the inside of the Advocate on special paper. Made mt first hires from those classifieds. Before the reviews here it was real hit or miss.

[+ Axiom2001]

That really sucks. I liked Unzipped. Also surprising is that this same article goes on to report:

 

"The Advocate, the gay media leader, will now be trimmed down from a standalone magazine to a 32-page insert bundled inside its gay culture focused counterpart Out...Freelance writers and photographers working for The Advocate have gone months without getting paid."

 

As a subcriber to both THE ADVOCATE and OUT-- this has already happened. I've received two "watered down" versions of the former magazine in my "plastic container!"

[CowboyUp]

Dang. Are there gay porn mags left besides the International Male and Undergear catalogs...and those supposedly "hetero" male fitness magazines?

[TeddyBear]

What happens to your subscription?

 

I called Here Media to find out what happens to my Unzipped subscription. It will be added to my Advocate subscription. Since my Freshmen and Men were added to Unzipped and my Out was added to Advocate, my subscription now won't run out until 2015. Hopefully, Advocate will last that long.

[+ Lucky]

Maybe EXPAT is in the wrong business. He should start a picture magazine!

[BaronArtz]

That's too bad. I always enjoyed reading Unzipped while travelling by plane. Especially when sitting next to some stuck up lady with a bad attitude. That would always shut 'em up.

[+ g56whiz]

That's too bad. I always enjoyed reading Unzipped while travelling by plane. Especially when sitting next to some stuck up lady with a bad attitude. That would always shut 'em up.

 

That's not very "noble" your Grace. Lol

[uwsman2]

unzipped

 

I'll miss Unzipped as well. That mention of the old Advocate personals really brought back memories. When I first moved to NYC in the late 1970s, the Advocate personals were the only way to meet gay folks and hire escorts unless one liked to kill hours in smokey, noisy bars, which was never really my style. I met some very hot escorts through Advocate personals in those days, but you had to go on very little information, since they charged by the word for those personals and the working boys would be counting every penny as they composed their ads. When I first started using them, they didn't even have pictures - that came years later, and only the escorts who were willing to spend big bucks would run pictures with their ads. The most you would get in the text were a few numbers (ht, wt, sometimes waistline) and maybe the word "top" or "bottom," and whether they took in-calls or just out-calls. That was about it. So there was so much less to go on than you have today with the on-line rentboy ads and the reviews on this site. This website has been so important to finding quality guys. The several guys who I see from time to time were all well-reviewed on this site except for one, and he was somebody who participated frequently on the message board before I contacted him....

 

Nostalgia....

[+ Charlie]

My experience with the Advocate was the same: I found my very first escorts there through the old "pink pages," which I saved carefully for years, hoping someday to hire the advertisers of certain intriguing ads; unfortunately, most of them had folded up shop before I got the chance. (One of them, however, is still advertising, on the web, with almost the same wording!)

[Toulouse]

Dang. Are there gay porn mags left besides the International Male and Undergear catalogs...and those supposedly "hetero" male fitness magazines?

 

Very few magazines are still in print circulation. Last year, Maverty Publications closed all seven of its gay porn titles: Black Inches, Honcho, Inches, Latin Inches, Mandate, Playguy, and Torso. Of course, Playgirl magazine is no longer in print (although its website still exists).

[GoodFella69]

Sad Development.

 

I don't own a single gay publication, yet I still find this development sad. It's yet another footnote in Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's book on the collapse and revival of the American community.

[dcguy20]

Wow, I had no idea that Torso had folded, but I hadn't purchased that magazine in at least 10 years, but I do remember buying my first one back in 1987!! Same for Men and Freshmen, though I stopped subscribing to Men about 5 years ago.

[justaguy]

I find it sad that it's closing but have to admit I'm part of the reason. Years ago it was one of my favorites but haven't seen a copy in quite some time.

[Pegasus]

Another hardcopy gay magazine bites the dust...the Internet is killing them off one by one. All of them should have figured out a way to leverage the online audience better way before now. Too bad really.

[Boomer]

Another hardcopy gay magazine bites the dust...the Internet is killing them off one by one. All of them should have figured out a way to leverage the online audience better way before now. Too bad really.

 

With all of the free porn on-line, why pay?

 

The Advocate never turned a profit. It was kept alive as a high-profile voice for the gay community. At one time the company that owned the Advocate owned Unzipped, Freshman, Men and a few other skin mags and that's where they made their money. The internet sunk that ship and they waited too long, like Playgirl, to develop an on-line presence.

 

I know that this assessment will ruffle a few feather's, but the editorial staff of the Advocate (at least at the top) was mostly lesbian including the editor-in-chief. It's my belief that besides running in the red, the magazines content moved away from their core audience of gay men. As the management gained momentum there were more and more stories featuring women. It got to a point where I found the magazine boring, where at one time it was my life-line to the gay world.