Canadian magazine for gay youth selling out in U.S

[TalonRider]

Canadian magazine for gay youth selling out in U.S.

CBC Arts

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HALIFAX - Young Gay America, a recently launched Canadian magazine for gay youth, is selling out on newsstands across North America.

The colourful, glossy title – which launched its first issue in December – targets young gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

Based in Halifax, printed in Ottawa and distributed across North America, the magazine's features are proving popular with young audiences because many of the ideas come from the readers themselves, some via website submissions, editor Mike Glatze told CBC News.

"We have a pretty steady stream of suggestions and basically all the content that's in the magazine comes from those suggestions," he said.

"We see ourselves as the people who [provide the medium] to allow these young people to be able to speak their mind," added Benjie Nycum, Glatze's partner and publisher of the magazine.

Past issues have included advice about "coming out" and dealing with homophobic schools. The third issue, which hit newsstands Friday, looks at sexuality and spirituality as well as pop stars and fashion.

"As a teenager you're going though a lot. You're going from being a child to an adult, so there's a lot of things you want to touch on. But everything we see every day is just geared toward straight people right?" said writer Mackenzie MacDonald.

"[Our readers are] looking for something different. The magazine has ... a lot of things for coming out, relationships, how we have to deal with it," he said.

A diverse range of topics is necessary because the target audience ranges in age from 14 to 25, said Glatze, who publishes the small-run title from his apartment with Nycum and a staff of volunteers. The editorial meetings are held in a Halifax café.

Despite the initial success of selling out in eight cities – including Halifax, Boston and Chicago – the magazine has a number of challenges to surmount. One major obstacle is attracting advertisers, Glatze said. Even though there's a demand for the magazine, advertisers like to see circulations of 30,000 or higher, more than double Young Gay America's current 12,000.

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