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PATRICIA NELL WARREN GAY MEDIA MARKETING
MYTHS
from The Secrets of Writing Series at Wildcat International Originally published in Gay & Lesbian Press Newsletter 11/5/99 |
| Marketing is not
always an exact science, even in the mainstream. I've been watching gay
media marketing for 25 years, and have a spooky feeling that some of us
are going by conventional wisdom, rather than updated overviews of who
is really buying what. For example, conventional wisdom says gay men have more disposable income than lesbian and bi women. So it's assumed that men outnumber women as buyers of magazines, newspapers, videos, CDs and books, as well as in total money spent at bookstores or on subscriptions. Furthermore, CW, paired with PC, insists that our women and men seldom read about each other. Hence many of our publications are segregated into "men" and "women" (though Lambda Book Report now lists "books enjoyed by all"). It took an independent non-gay trade magazine, ForeWord, to throw this CW into major question. ForeWord went to independent LGBT bookstores and asked to know their 10 best-selling titles. Forget subdivisions into men's and women's, fiction and nonfiction, etc. Just the top 10 overall. The results, published in November 1998, were eyebrow-raising. Seven of the nation's 10 most-purchased gay book titles were written by women, and over half were backlist... meaning older books. The ForeWord survey suggests that there is closet crossover reading in the gay world - more than we're prepared to admit. When it comes to dollars spent, lesbians and bi women may provide greater support for our media business than we think. From what I have observed over the years (and I talk to store managers wherever I go), many of those dollars that gay men spend on print media of any kind go to pornography. Meaning skin mags, calendars. Since the women's porn market is smaller than the men's market, women buyers may have a larger-than-reported market share on non-porn print media. Yet some women's regional publications are struggling to survive. Is it possible - 25 years after Stonewall - that we may have to re-study what advertising and content appeals to the different genders? What about other cherished CWs? Like (1) magazines don't sell without young things and celebs on the covers, or (2) men's magazines don't sell without cute half-naked men on the cover, or (3) general-interest magazines supposedly aimed at both women and men won't sell without cute men on the cover most of the time? Are there bright spots? The CW that gay publications can't survive without 900 ads or personals is finally starting to bite the dust. Maybe that's a sign we are finally growing up. © 2001 by
Patricia Nell Warren.
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