I work in the gay press and I am given insight into industry stories and reports. The following is one of those:
FEATURE: California’s marriage gold rush: GLBT media in the Golden State just might strike it rich as couples legally wed
by Chuck Colbert
The numbers from California are staggering. More than 51,000 same-sex couples are expected to marry there over the next three years, according to a recent UCLA Williams Institute report. Add to that number an additional 67,000 marriages from out-of-state couples. Altogether, California's wedding industry will grow by approximately $684 million in direct spending and perhaps create 2,100 new jobs. At the same time, marriage equality would add $64 million in revenue to the state budget. For the marriage business, a new California gold rush is on.
All of which raises questions for California’s GLBT media. Will they see economic windfalls from increased advertising? Are they pursuing new sources of ad revenue? And what lessons can be learned from the groundbreaking experiences of Massachusetts and Canada?
California's same-sex marriage bonanza began on June 17, with wedding bells ringing statewide for same-sex couples. “This is a great opportunity to market the paper, opening up a whole new market to us for all kinds of businesses,” everything from cake decorators and jewelers, to hoteliers, clothiers, disc jockeys, and florists, said Michael M. Yama****a, general manager of San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter (BAR). What's more, “We see San Francisco as a premier destination for gay marriage.” In part, that’s because California will be allowed to marry out-of-state couples. Massachusetts, on the other hand, is only permitted to marry couples living (or intending to live) in the Bay State.
Accordingly, his sales team has been “actively going after businesses,” he explained. “It's a symbiotic relationship. They see an opportunity to reach into the gay market. Now it's easy for them, when before they never thought of reaching out to us.”
Take jewelers, for instance, never before a big market for BAR advertising. Yet, weeks prior to legal gay wedlock, the paper had several ads from jewelers. “Two were not even in the city,” Yama****a said, but from the East Bay.
Not to be outdone, San Diego has gay-marriage destination appeal, too. As sales manager Frank Lechner of the local Gay & Lesbian Times explained, “We're out talking to wedding planners, tuxedo places, bridal shops, and jewelers about anything that has to do with putting on a wedding.”
In one case, the Evans Hotel placed an ad in the paper for wedding venues, which included the tag line, “It's about time.” The hotel has also pledged a portion of its wedding revenues to defeat a potential November ballot referendum regarding a constitutional amendment seeking to ban same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, “Calls from wedding planners, people who bake cakes, and hotels are off the charts.” said David Stern, publisher of Los Angeles-based Frontiers. So far, “No requests for announcements.” But that may change as Stern prepares for a wedding section. “It will be a combination of announcements and a marketplace for services.”
Similarly, news editor Cynthia Laird said BAR is designing a wedding planner section, a newspaper insert – plus a marriage feature on the Web – that will include wedding announcements.
Just as the same-sex marriage bonanza boosts California's economy, a sense of political urgency continues. As Frontiers’ Stern is quick to point out, “Our reporters are not taking their eyes off the ball, the ballot referendum. There will be constant reporting on that.”
Initial GLBT media coverage focused on the California Supreme Court's landmark decision granting equal civil-marriage rights in the nation's most populous state. Next, news stories told how to get married, explaining the procedures of getting a license, which varies slightly by county. With the advent of legal gay wedlock, GLBT media turned the spotlight on the joy of married lesbian and gay couples.
“GLBT media can cover this story in a way no one can,” said Cathy Renna, managing partner of Renna Communications, which works with GLBT media and organizations. “No matter how good a job mainstream media does, to get the inside story, the community piece, or the more nuanced [coverage] – as always – go to GLBT media.”
Bob Witeck of Witeck-Combs Communications, a marketing and public relations firm, said that the economic effects of California same-sex marriage will likely be felt far beyond the state’s borders. “What's interesting are expenditures outside the state.” As couples come to California to marry, “they cannot always fly the whole family and guests out there. They'll fly back and celebrate at home.”
Witeck thinks wedding industry vendors will be eager to move on same-sex marriage and do so quickly. “There is absolutely no downside to [GLBT media advertising], only an upside,” he said. “They want to be perceived as gay friendly, welcoming and helpful.”
Sue O'Connell, co-publisher of Boston-based Bay Windows, couldn't agree more. “The wedding industry is more than happy to advertise in and support the gay press.” O'Connell estimates that her publication netted a $100,000 windfall of increased ad sales revenue during the first year of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts (2004) and about $250,000 over the next three years. None of the advertisers were national, she noted. It was all local and regional.
Early on, Bay Windows partnered with the Freedom to Marry Coalition of Massachusetts to produce their same-sex wedding planner, which generated a quick $25,000 of new ad revenue.
The additional revenues enabled Bay Windows staffers to make a strong commitment to coverage. As O'Connell explained, “It was going to be about securing and making same-sex marriage legal in Massachusetts, covering it at any cost. That was our major investment, and the revenue from vendors in the marriage business funded it.” Overall, she said, “It was one of those never-to-be-duplicated-again moments.”
Nonetheless, the Canadian GLBT press experience holds a sobering lesson. “There was a lot of speculation that the change in marriage laws would see an increase in certain kinds of advertising,” said editor in chief and publisher Brandon Matheson of Xtra, based in Toronto. “That certainly did not translate into the pages of our paper,” even though the sales team targeted specific wedding industry businesses. Additionally, Xtra introduced a short-lived one-page sales feature, called a “Celebration of Life,” that included wedding announcements.
Canada legalized marriage equality nationwide in 2005, but same-sex marriage had become lawful in the province on Ontario two years earlier. “There was no substantial increase in advertising related to what we would call the marriage business – jewelry stores, limousine services, caterers,” said Matheson. “Those sorts of clients were already advertising.”
Are you guys reaping the benefits yet? If not, are you actively marketing to this market?
FEATURE: California’s marriage gold rush: GLBT media in the Golden State just might strike it rich as couples legally wed
by Chuck Colbert
The numbers from California are staggering. More than 51,000 same-sex couples are expected to marry there over the next three years, according to a recent UCLA Williams Institute report. Add to that number an additional 67,000 marriages from out-of-state couples. Altogether, California's wedding industry will grow by approximately $684 million in direct spending and perhaps create 2,100 new jobs. At the same time, marriage equality would add $64 million in revenue to the state budget. For the marriage business, a new California gold rush is on.
All of which raises questions for California’s GLBT media. Will they see economic windfalls from increased advertising? Are they pursuing new sources of ad revenue? And what lessons can be learned from the groundbreaking experiences of Massachusetts and Canada?
California's same-sex marriage bonanza began on June 17, with wedding bells ringing statewide for same-sex couples. “This is a great opportunity to market the paper, opening up a whole new market to us for all kinds of businesses,” everything from cake decorators and jewelers, to hoteliers, clothiers, disc jockeys, and florists, said Michael M. Yama****a, general manager of San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter (BAR). What's more, “We see San Francisco as a premier destination for gay marriage.” In part, that’s because California will be allowed to marry out-of-state couples. Massachusetts, on the other hand, is only permitted to marry couples living (or intending to live) in the Bay State.
Accordingly, his sales team has been “actively going after businesses,” he explained. “It's a symbiotic relationship. They see an opportunity to reach into the gay market. Now it's easy for them, when before they never thought of reaching out to us.”
Take jewelers, for instance, never before a big market for BAR advertising. Yet, weeks prior to legal gay wedlock, the paper had several ads from jewelers. “Two were not even in the city,” Yama****a said, but from the East Bay.
Not to be outdone, San Diego has gay-marriage destination appeal, too. As sales manager Frank Lechner of the local Gay & Lesbian Times explained, “We're out talking to wedding planners, tuxedo places, bridal shops, and jewelers about anything that has to do with putting on a wedding.”
In one case, the Evans Hotel placed an ad in the paper for wedding venues, which included the tag line, “It's about time.” The hotel has also pledged a portion of its wedding revenues to defeat a potential November ballot referendum regarding a constitutional amendment seeking to ban same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, “Calls from wedding planners, people who bake cakes, and hotels are off the charts.” said David Stern, publisher of Los Angeles-based Frontiers. So far, “No requests for announcements.” But that may change as Stern prepares for a wedding section. “It will be a combination of announcements and a marketplace for services.”
Similarly, news editor Cynthia Laird said BAR is designing a wedding planner section, a newspaper insert – plus a marriage feature on the Web – that will include wedding announcements.
Just as the same-sex marriage bonanza boosts California's economy, a sense of political urgency continues. As Frontiers’ Stern is quick to point out, “Our reporters are not taking their eyes off the ball, the ballot referendum. There will be constant reporting on that.”
Initial GLBT media coverage focused on the California Supreme Court's landmark decision granting equal civil-marriage rights in the nation's most populous state. Next, news stories told how to get married, explaining the procedures of getting a license, which varies slightly by county. With the advent of legal gay wedlock, GLBT media turned the spotlight on the joy of married lesbian and gay couples.
“GLBT media can cover this story in a way no one can,” said Cathy Renna, managing partner of Renna Communications, which works with GLBT media and organizations. “No matter how good a job mainstream media does, to get the inside story, the community piece, or the more nuanced [coverage] – as always – go to GLBT media.”
Bob Witeck of Witeck-Combs Communications, a marketing and public relations firm, said that the economic effects of California same-sex marriage will likely be felt far beyond the state’s borders. “What's interesting are expenditures outside the state.” As couples come to California to marry, “they cannot always fly the whole family and guests out there. They'll fly back and celebrate at home.”
Witeck thinks wedding industry vendors will be eager to move on same-sex marriage and do so quickly. “There is absolutely no downside to [GLBT media advertising], only an upside,” he said. “They want to be perceived as gay friendly, welcoming and helpful.”
Sue O'Connell, co-publisher of Boston-based Bay Windows, couldn't agree more. “The wedding industry is more than happy to advertise in and support the gay press.” O'Connell estimates that her publication netted a $100,000 windfall of increased ad sales revenue during the first year of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts (2004) and about $250,000 over the next three years. None of the advertisers were national, she noted. It was all local and regional.
Early on, Bay Windows partnered with the Freedom to Marry Coalition of Massachusetts to produce their same-sex wedding planner, which generated a quick $25,000 of new ad revenue.
The additional revenues enabled Bay Windows staffers to make a strong commitment to coverage. As O'Connell explained, “It was going to be about securing and making same-sex marriage legal in Massachusetts, covering it at any cost. That was our major investment, and the revenue from vendors in the marriage business funded it.” Overall, she said, “It was one of those never-to-be-duplicated-again moments.”
Nonetheless, the Canadian GLBT press experience holds a sobering lesson. “There was a lot of speculation that the change in marriage laws would see an increase in certain kinds of advertising,” said editor in chief and publisher Brandon Matheson of Xtra, based in Toronto. “That certainly did not translate into the pages of our paper,” even though the sales team targeted specific wedding industry businesses. Additionally, Xtra introduced a short-lived one-page sales feature, called a “Celebration of Life,” that included wedding announcements.
Canada legalized marriage equality nationwide in 2005, but same-sex marriage had become lawful in the province on Ontario two years earlier. “There was no substantial increase in advertising related to what we would call the marriage business – jewelry stores, limousine services, caterers,” said Matheson. “Those sorts of clients were already advertising.”
Are you guys reaping the benefits yet? If not, are you actively marketing to this market?
