Gay blog Queerty closes!

Gay blog Queerty has closed.

This message is on their site:

A message from Queerty
After more than five years of serving the LGBT community with news and entertainment, Queerty has come to a close. The decision to shutter the site was not an easy one to make, and it is with great pain that we say goodbye to our loyal readership. From all of Queerty’s writers and contributors, from our first unto our last day, thank you for spending some time with us.

—Queerty and 353Media


A longer, sort-of-explanation is here. It’s a letter from Queerty (and Jossip) founder David Hauslaib:

Some five and a half years ago I launched my second blog, Queerty, after seeing an opening for a new type of LGBT site. It joined Jossip, and would son be followed by two sister sites. That journey has come to an end: Queerty is closing.

Along the way, Queerty has grown to reach an audience of a million visitors each month, driving the international news cycle and fostering conversations among and about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. I’m very proud of the work Queerty accomplished, covering news and entertainment, music and culture, politics, celebrity, career, sports, and sex. Most of all, it is Queerty’s readers and contributors who have been the site’s biggest asset, fostering an online community that agreed with each other as often as not. Reading the conversations among readers, and the email sent in, was always a delicious perk.

As many of you know, last year Queerty partnered with the folks at 353Media to handle its operations. I transitioned out of my original role to make time to tackle some unrelated projects, and a trusted crew took the reins. Sadly last week, in a scenario that began with some technical headaches, has ended with 353 opting not to continue operating the site. It is a decision I was saddened to hear, and I worked to find an amenable solution that would keep Queerty online. That effort was unsuccessful.

I have watched web properties that I launched come to an [sic] close before, but Queerty’s end is certainly one of the hardest to see.

I apologize for the mass email, but there are a number of people I wanted to hear the news from me before the release of a formal statement.

You can continue to reach me at david@hauslaib.com. Thank you all for a wonderful experience.

Cheers
David

Queerty joins many many others that have been relegated to the the gay media graveyard in the past five years, including the recent demise of BlogActive, esteemed regional weeklies like The Chicago Free Press, and the weekly print version of The Advocate. Recently, the Bilerico Project mentioned that they had thought about shutting down, as has Pam’s House Blend.

Read the eloquent post from Bilerico.