Out Lays Off Entire Staff

Capitol New York reports that Out Magazine has laid off its entire editorial staff.

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, a subsidiary of Regent Media, 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.

Not a cost-cutting measure?

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.) [snip] 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.

RELATED: In November 2009 it was announced that The Advocate would henceforth be shipped only in combination with sister publication Out, ending after 40+ years the stand-alone status of the nation's most highly regarded LGBT news source.