Advocate, the (United States)

The Advocate is the longest running and most widely distributed gay and lesbian publication in the United States. The monthly magazine's devotion from a queer perspective to news, travel, art, and general cultural interests affords it wide readership not just in North America but also throughout the world. Since its inception, it has been a major source of information for the gay and lesbian community and the most widely cited source of major national publications seeking “gay perspectives.”

Born of a newsletter created by PRIDE (Personal Rights in Defense and Education), a Los Angeles group founded in the late 1960s to combat police harassment, The Los Angeles Advocate, as it was originally known, was 12 pages long and had an initial print run of 500. Its three main founders were Dick Michaels, Bill Rand, and artist Sam Winston. The trio came together to purchase the publication rights in 1968, prior to PRIDE's dissolution, and by March 1970, The Los Angeles Advocate had a run of over 5,000. It was at first sold in gay-friendly establishments for 25 cents to cover the cost of printing. Later that spring, Los Angeles was dropped from the title, with the hopes of The Advocate gaining a broader readership. By 1974, it was printing 40,000 copies of each issue.

The circulation increase caught the attention of entrepreneur David B. Goodstein, who purchased The Advocate in 1975. He made it a biweekly for the next decade, also shifting from a heavily political magazine to a more commercial, glossy publication. Many gay activists resented Goodstein's purchase because of the magazine's somewhat militant roots. The Advocate's lack of acknowledgment and lack of coverage of the 1980s AIDS crisis drew heavy criticism from many within the gay community. Goodstein eventually moved the editorial offices from Los Angeles to San Mateo, near San Francisco, until 1984, when the decision was made to return to Los Angeles.

Between 1990 and 1992, national advertising revenue nearly doubled. In 1992, Sam Watters took over the publication and made it an all-glossy magazine. The magazine's sexually explicit “pink pages” were spun off into a separate periodical. Whereas advertising revenue continued to steadily increase with the magazine's sleek new look, reader response was somewhat varied. Many argued that the removal of sexual ads and erotic fiction caused a “mainstreaming” effect, whereas others were pleased to have a more “wholesome” magazine that spoke to their community.

In November 2005, The Advocate's publisher, Liberation Publications, Inc., was acquired by San Francisco-based PlanetOut Inc., merging the two largest gay-oriented media firms in the United States. In 2008, The Advocate was sold by PlanetOut Inc. to Regent Media, owners of LGBTQ cable network here! and Out magazine.