A time for enlightenment

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, May, 1990 by Barbara Love

I'm really surprised at how the magazine publishing industry has reacted to the possibility that Malcolm Forbes Sr. was homosexual. The comments I've heard show a blindness to the existence of homosexuality and a fear of discussing it that sound more like 1950 than 1990. The issue is not whether Forbes but whether homophobia exists in our industry.

It's even risky to print how magazines address the subject, according to a freelance reporter who was asked to write about it for Publisbing News. The reporter told me that someone (not from Forbes) had said Forbes might blackball Publisbing News if we bring up the subject at all, and asked for the byline to be removed.

Questions asked by "Media Industry Newsletter" (MIN) are disturbing: "Were such allegations used against Forbes in the cutthroat battle for ad pages?" and "Can such charges damage an established property such as Forbes?" A MIN reporter overheard someone at the funeral ask, "How many CEOs would have associated with him if they knew the real life he was leading?" Wow! Are we back in the McCarthy era?

If there's any substance to these questions, then we are living and working in a very intolerant and unenlightened community.

Some people are outraged over the story "The other side of Malcolm," which appeared in OutWeek, the New York City-based magazine for gays (See Forbes story gets cold shoulder, " Publishing News, April 1990, page 2). But if editors are there to serve readers, we have to respect OutWeek's position, presented in an editorial that states, in essence, that gay people have been deprived of inspiration and role models because of "the dark tyranny of the closet."

Contributing to a solution

Talk about Malcolm Forbes has put the issue of attitudes toward homosexuality in the publishing industry on the table. There probably are gays and lesbians in your company (maybe 10 percent, national statistics say) and they probably feel threatened because they don't know whether or not they are in a hostile environment. Gay people often work in emotional isolation, sometimes feigning marriages or avoiding company socials that include spouses.

This is a good time to address our own attitudes and policies regarding colleagues, superiors, subordinates and friends who may be gay. If you are in top management, and you feel there should be no discrimination in your company against homosexuals, you could make the environment less threatening.

For example, you could review your personnel manuals and employment applications. If you already state that your company does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color or gender, you may want to add the words "sexual preference" to the list. Policy statements like this are not new. Even a number of Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Citicorp and American Express, have or have had them. And you might consider inviting "significant others" to picnics or parties.

These small things that demonstrate acceptance and sensitivity would be reassuring to more people than you know-people who are loyal, talented and hardworking employees. Reassuring them and their co-workers just makes good business sense.

Chamber 'in commerce' vs. commerce

It has always been my understanding that a chamber of commerce exists to help local businesses, not compete with them. Well, in jacksonville, Florida, that's not how it works. The jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, which publishes Jacksonville Magazine, has been a tough competitor for Jacksonville Today, owned by a long-time local businessman named Jim White.

All was well when the C of C publication focused just on local business, but then it changed into a lifestyle book in direct competition with Today. Needless to say, it has an edge. As a nonprofit magazine, it enjoys lower postal rates and a tax-exempt status. And the fact that advertisers are also members of the C of C is a boon. White, owner and publisher of Today, claims that, in at least one case he knows of an advertising agency recommended his magazine-but the advertiser, a member of the C of C, insisted on running in the C of C magazine.

Competition grew so fierce that the C of C called in lots of high-powered consultants and changed its direction every six months. White, struggling, dropped his frequency from 12 to six times per year. At that time, the editor of the C of C magazine left and told the local newspaper (the Florida Times-Union) that she felt she had been successful because she had forced Today to decrease its frequency.

White says "it's been a pretty rough five years," but he does have an "in" with the C of C. You guessed it: His magazine is a member. The C of C's new executive director doesn't seem to have ego involvement with its magazine and is willing to talk about a resolution, according to White. it's possible there will be only one magazine in the future-owned and run by White.

Barbara Love, FOLIO: Editor