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When last we came across a print edition of Spokane's gay paper, Stonewall News Northwest, a banner on the front page of the bi-weekly paper announced that the May 2 issue would be "Our Final Issue; Stonewall suspends publishing".

A letter from then-publisher Mike Schultz explained

...the fun has become increasingly lost on the struggles of declining advertising revenue... While Stonewall has enjoyed a circulation and readership that has tripled over the last two years, stable advertising revenue has declined. ... So what happened to Stonewall? Something very simple actually. Our advertisers didn't hear from you, our reader.

Schultz said that "a deepening relationship with my partner and building our lives together have also taken priority over the cost of personal time for the outreach that it takes to keep our community engaged with Stonewall," but offered a ray of hope that "someone motivated and committed to a level of outreach that transcends the insulated tendency of our community" would buy the paper.

It turns out, that that's exactly what happened, but not without a fair share of drama.

A July 14 story by reporter Donna Tam in Spokane's daily, The Spokesman-Review, tells a story that hints at the messy intrigue that followed. (A note first about that link: It's remarkable that you can actually read an S-R story on the web. Until recently, they hid most of their stories behind a firewall that not only required a nasty registration process -- something too many papers do, but also restricted web readership to those who subscribe to the paper's dead-tree edition. Maybe they had a deal with Weyerhauser, but things seem to have opened up a bit. Something to do with that McClatchy "RealCities" logo that now appears on the page? Maybe... But that's different media story.)

Fred Swink, described in the S-R story as a "recent Chicago transplant" took over the paper in June, but it wasn't exactly a smooth transition, according to the daily.

Since Fred Swink became Stonewall News Northwest's publisher last month, the paper has faced staffing issues and what Swink called an attack on its Web site, leaving Stonewall unable to publish a print edition.

Swink said Stonewall News' Web site was dismantled by a "disgruntled staff member" who managed the site and laid out the print edition. He said the staff member, whom he declined to name, made editorial changes to the paper during layout without consulting Swink and lifted Associated Press wire stories without attributing them or subscribing to the service.

Former arts and entertainment editor Christopher Lawrence identified Stonewall News' previous publisher, Mike Schultz, as the person who worked on layout and the Web site.

Schultz, Stonewall?s publisher for two years, confirmed that he took down the Web site. He said it was not included in the sale of the newspaper.

"They were on loan to Fred Swink as a courtesy," Schultz explained. "It would be fair to say that courtesy has expired."

Schultz said Swink's other assertions are false. Both he and Swink decided that Schultz should separate from the paper after a disagreement about the layout.

For anyone who vaguely watches what happens with these little ink-on-dead-tree outfits, that's juicy stuff. Proof: Tam is able to use the adjective "disgruntled."

It turns at that the "former arts and entertainment editor Christopher Lawrence" became "former" only after Swink took over. After working at the paper since 2004, he resigned "citing creative differences with Swink." As often happens with the staff of gay papers (in our view, unfortunately), Lawrence is also a community activist, serving as chairman of the board at OutSpokane, the nonprofit that runs Spokane?s Pride Parade and Rainbow Festival.

"I think it's tragic," Lawrence said of the tribulations of the paper in the last year. "I'd like to just get back to putting out a paper that is a community paper."

The paper is an important part of the local gay community, said Lawrence. ... "It helps us see ourselves as a very diverse community," Lawrence said of Stonewall. "We don't just go to bars. We don?t just do drag. We don?t just wear leather. We live on farms. We have families."

We didn't see many issues of the paper, but we were always impressed with it when we saw it. It almost always offered a unique local slant on gay news that went beyond republishing press releases -- something often missing from its west-of-the-mountains big brother.

One thing it didn't have, however, was much of a web presence. The best they could manage on their former website were headlines and pdf copies of the print edition's pages. Who knows, given the daily's odd web policies, maybe what Schultz identified as the "insulated tendency of our community" applies more broadly to the Spokane area.

Whatever ends up happening to the print edition under Swink, the paper at least boasts a slightly better website. He's apparently regained control of the url at stonewallnews.net, and offers a website with actual stories on the web. (Unfortunately, in keeping with that "insulated tendency," reading beyond the headline currently requires registration.)

We wish them well, but hope they break Spokane tradition and get rid of that registration requirement.

Labels: gay business, gay news, gay organization, Washington