- Outlook Media
-
Outlook Columbus 
Outlook Media media kit and image used for Outlook Columbus May 2009 Urban Living IssueEditor Chris Hayes Categories Newsmagazine Frequency Monthly Circulation 15,000 per issue Publisher Michael Daniels and Chris Hayes First issue 1997 Company Outlook Media Country 
United StatesBased in Columbus, Ohio Language English Website www.OutlookColumbus.com ISSN 74470-25134 High Street Neighborhoods [[Image: |frameless|alt=|]]
Editor Chris Hayes Former editors Aaron Leventhal Categories Saver Magazine Frequency Bi-Annual Circulation 75,000 per issue First issue 2000 Company Outlook Media Country United StatesBased in Columbus, Ohio Language English Website www.HighStreetMoneySavers.com/ Outlook Media is a Columbus, Ohio-based gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (GLBT) lifestyle and advocacy company for the Ohio queer and allied community. Outlook Media is named after its primary monthly publication, Outlook Columbus. Outlook Media also publishes High Street Neighborhoods, manages Columbus' GLBT and allied business networking group, Network Columbus, and has partnered with the Ohio Historical Society to form the Gay Ohio History Initiative.
Contents
Current Publications and Initiatives
Outlook Columbus
Outlook Columbus is a monthly produced publication with content that contains both locally and nationally focused features with a mix of columns, editorials, arts & entertainment, sports, celebrity interviews and community news.[1] The publication replaced Outlook Weekly as the company's primary publication. The magazine can be found for free in over 800 locations within the Columbus area including local libraries, restaurants, and night clubs or by paid, home-delivery subscription. Outlook Columbus differentiates itself from similar GLBT publications by its advertising. Outlook doesn’t limit its partners to gay-owned or gay-themed advertisers but also gay-friendly or straight owned but open-minded type businesses including national advertisers Bank One, Time Warner, and American Express among local businesses.[2] The magazine's content is diverse as well, targeting a large cross section of the community while at the same time speaking to specific groups under the large GLBT umbrella.[3] According to studies listed on their corporate website, Outlook Columbus is the number one media choice for the Columbus GLBT and allied community, the number one media choice for newcomers to Columbus who have been in the city for 5 years or less, and the number two print choice for African Americans in Columbus.[4]
High Street Neighborhoods
High Street Neighborhoods is a bi-annual, community based saver-magazine whose audience is the general public that resides within the Columbus urban core. Each issue is divided into community based sections where local advertisers present coupons. These communities include Merion Village, German Village, the Brewery District, Downtown, the King Lincoln District, the Arena District, the Short North Arts District, the University District, Clintonville, Worthington, Grandview, Franklinton, and Old Town East. Features also include a travel guide, service directory, and pet directory. The publication is distributed to more than 200 Columbus locations where it can be found for free including recreation centers, Columbus YMCA, and Experience Columbus visitors centers.[5]
Network Columbus
Network Columbus has been dubbed Central Ohio's 'gay chamber of commerce.' [6] The organization, with 3000 members, provides networking events, educational programs, business advocacy and linkages with other business and professional organizations with the purpose to lead and support economic growth within the central Ohio GLBT community.[7]
Gay Ohio History Initiative
Outlook Media and The Ohio Historical Society created this initiative to include memorabilia and memories for gays across the state.[8] As of summer 2010, two exhibits, Remembering the Berwick Ball, and The International Drag King Community Extravaganza Exhibit, have been curated by the Gay Ohio History initiative. A traveling exhibit is in the works.[9]
Past Publications and Initiatives
Radio Outlook
Radio Outlook was a weekly GLBT talk-radio show and the first of its kind in Ohio. The show had a leftward lean, targeting the GLBT community but was enjoyed by a larger audience who enjoyed current events and friendly, informed banter.[10] It was available on WVKO-AM (1580) before the radio station switched ownership.
TV Outlook
TV Outlook is similar in format to Radio Outlook. It was available on WDEM.
Outlook
Outlook was the company's first publication. It was a bi-weekly newspaper and followed a newspaper approach in layout based in strong journalism and professional design, rather than serving as a promotional publication for the Greater Columbus GLBT community. Circulation was between 8,000 and 12,000 and distributed to over 200 locations.
Outlook Weekly
Outlook Weekly replaced Outlook as the companies primary publication. Published every week rather than every other week, the newspaper had similar content and format. In 2004, the publication switched content slightly, from just a news tabloid to a lifestyle tabloid as well.
History
Outlook Publishing, Inc. was founded by co-owners and publishers Jeffrey D. Cox and Jim Ryan in the spring of 1996 with the primary purpose of publishing their paper titled Outlook. Ryan was editor and managed distribution while Cox managed finances, layout, and design from his home. The paper relied on volunteer initiative and freelance reporters to operate. Before Outlook's establishment, the only other GLBT focused publications in Ohio were the Gay People's Chronicle, which was based out of Cleveland, and a monthly publication from Stonewall Columbus. Outlook was created to fill the void as a news voice for the Columbus community.
Under Cox, and Ryan's ownership, the newspaper quickly became respected as a professional news source. In the fall of 1998, Outlook earned five writing awards, called the Vice Versa Awards for Excellence in the Gay and Lesbian Press, from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association and received third place for Best Newspaper in the weekly or bi-weekly category. These awards were given for the paper's approach to controversial topics and the effect they had on the Columbus community. For example when Outlook published a piece about anti-gay harassment by members of the Ohio State University wrestling team, the OSU Athletic Department created mandatory sexual orientation cultural competence training for all its employees.
In early 1999, Outlook Publishing, Inc. was sold to Lynn Greer, Jose Rodriguez, and Malcolm Riggle operating from offices in Worthington, Ohio. Within the year Rodriguez sold his share of the company to Greer and Riggle.
In the fall of 2003, Malcom Riggle assumed sole-ownership of company operations. Under his leadership, Outlook Weekly became a lifestyle tabloid. That November, Outlook Publishing, Inc. changed names to Outlook Media, Inc. Two years later, in the fall of 2005, Outlook teamed with the Ohio Historical Society to form the Gay Ohio History Initiative.[11] Also within the year, the magazine saw controversy in a surrounding Columbus, Ohio suburb. Some members of the Upper Arlington community tried to ban the newspaper from its libraries, but after library board discussions the paper was decided to remain available to patrons.[12]
In 2006, Outlook Media changed ownership after seven years under Malcom Riggle. Chris Hayes and Michael Daniels bought the company and moved Outlook's offices to The Short North.[13] Under their leadership, Outlook Weekly's audience expanded to the Columbus progressive community while still maintaining its readership base in the GLBT community.[14] In the summer of 2008, Outlook Media started its radio program, Radio Outlook which lasted one year.[15]
Outlook Weekly changed format to a monthly magazine in 2009, changing names to Outlook Columbus. The final issue of Outlook Weekly was released on March 25, 2009.[16] The monthly format changed the look of the publication by upgrading to paper stock and including more in-depth features while still remaining free to the public.[17] Outlook Columbus has had successful pieces including an article interview with Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel that reached national acclaim. The piece was reprinted on March 3, 2010 in Outsports, which caters to the gay sports community.[18] From here, news of the article reached ESPN, where it was reprinted again on March 4.[19] Sports Illustrated then picked up the story and positively commented on the Tressel interview on March 8, 2010. After the Sports Illustrated article, the story went viral across the country including reports by the San Francisco Chronicle [20] and The Advocate's '150 Reasons to Have Pride' among others.[21]
In May 2010, Outlook Media purchased the saver-magazine, High Street Neighborhoods, from Aaron Leventhal. Outlook Media later won the American Marketing Association Columbus Chapter's Achievement in Marketing Award for best research-driven Marketing Campaign. This was given for the company's "Niche Marketing 270" seminar presented by Michael Daniels.[22]
External links
- Official website
- Outlook Columbus
- High Street Neighborhoods
- Network Columbus
- Gay Ohio History Initiative
Notes
- ^ Outlook media. Retrieved 7-20-10
- ^ Wilder, Brent. 5-27-05. Reaching outside the circle. Columbus Business First. Retrieved 7-20-10.
- ^ Outlook media. Retrieved 7-20-10
- ^ Outlook media. Retrieved 7-20-10
- ^ High Street Money Savers. Retrieved 7-20-10
- ^ Wilder, Brent. 5-27-05. Reaching outside the circle. Columbus Business First. Retrieved 7-20-10
- ^ Network Columbus. Retrieved 7-20-10
- ^ Williams, Sherri. 10-17-05. Historical society to document gays' past. The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved 7-20-10
- ^ Gay Ohio History Initiative. Retrieved 6-20-10.
- ^ Fisher, Ann. 9-26-08. Gay talk show speaks to broad audience. The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved 7-20-10
- ^ Williams, Sherri. 10-17-05. Historical society to document gays' past. The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved 7-20-10.
- ^ Narciso, Dean. 8-31-05. Library Will Keep 2 Gay Papers. The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved 7-20-10.
- ^ 5-22-06. Outlook Weekly publisher sold. Columbus Business First. Retrieved 7-20-10.
- ^ Kemper, Kevin. 8-12-10. Outlook Weekly expands reach. Columbus Business First. Retrieved 7-20-10
- ^ Kemper, Kevin. 8-12-10. Outlook Weekly expands reach. Columbus Business First. Retrieved 7-20-10
- ^ 3-19-09.Outlook Weekly Goes Outlook Monthly. Columbus Underground Retrieved 7-20-10.
- ^ Burns, Matt. 4-18-10. Outlook weekly going monthly. Columbus Business First. Retrieved 7-20-10.
- ^ Daniels, Michael. 3-03-10. Jim Tressel: 'Everybody is important'. Out Sports Retrieved 7-20-10.
- ^ Rittenberg, Adam. 3-04-10. OSU's Tressel talks acceptance with GLBT. ESPN College Football. Retrieved 7-20-10.
- ^ Knapp, Gwen. 3-11-10. Closet door opens just a bit. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 7-20-10.
- ^ June–July 2010. 150 Reasons to Have Pride in 2010. The Advocate. Retrieved 7-20-10.
- ^ Outlook media. Retrieved 7-20-10.
Categories:- Publications established in 1997
- American LGBT-related magazines
- Cultural magazines
- American lifestyle magazines
- LGBT in Ohio
- Monthly magazines
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