Winnipeg’s local GLBT magazine Outwords has caused a stir by publicly launching a policy that it will not run “sex ads,” specifically targeting Cruiseline and Squirt.org, both regular advertisers that have run ads in Outwords for years. Pink Triangle Press, which publishes Xtra, also operates the online cruising website Squirt and until recently also operated Cruiseline.
In an editorial in the latest issue of Outwords, editor Rachel Morgan explains the decision.”Cruiseline and Squirt are legal businesses but the reality is they are selling sex. Because of that we are getting a lot of pushback from businesses and advertisers who are uncomfortable with the Cruiseline and Squirt ads. We are also getting pushback from queer families who say they don’t like having the magazine in their homes where their children might see the ads,” she writes.
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The magazine has a circulation of about 4,500 copies, mostly in coffeshops and bars in Winnipeg.Morgan hopes to expand that circulation to clinics, schools and more upscale establishments. She says that refusing the ads is crucial to reaching these markets.
“There are so many gay-straight alliances in schools and gay people are using so many health clinics not just in the gay community,” she says. “We’re tailoring our magazine and our ad package to meet that. It’s not a condemnation of a particular lifestyle.”
Morgan says the Cruiseline and Squirt ads represented one seventh of Outwords ad revenue, but that in the short term, the ads have been replaced by new advertising from Red River College. Outwords continues to run ads from the Adonis bathhouse. The Adonis ad in the current issue even includes a line that reads, “Tuesday Night Is Cruiseline Pass Night at Adonis Spa,” and includes the Cruiseline logo and phone number. The ad features a man’s bare torso and the works, “THE NOONER: MONDAY-FRIDAY” along with times and rates for lockers and regular rooms.
Morgan says she doesn’t consider the Adonis ad to be “selling sex” in the same way as Cruiseline or Squirt.
“Well, Adonis doesn’t run ads that suggest they are selling sex,” she says. “The bottom line is that our guidelines will prohibit ads that sell sex.” Morgan tells Xtra that she will ask Adonis management to remove the references to Cruiseline in future ads.
Jeffrey Freeman, web marketing manager for Squirt, says he’s disappointed that Outwords is refusing to take Squirt’s business. “We’ve been committed to using Canadian gay media to build our membership,” he says. “We have ads placed in Canadian publications from Vancouver to Halifax.” ”Squirt is not a ‘site that sells sex,’” he says. “It a site that serves a community of men who seek men. We don’t wish to take sex out of sexuality however. This makes some squeamish, but again our mission is not to gloss over the behaviors of our members.”
Freeman says opportunities for advertizing gay cruising services in print have shrunk in the past few years as the recession swallowed regional gay newspapers across North America. Some other gay magazines including Out and Advocate are operated by companies that also operate hookup sites and won’t take ads from Squirt either, he says. Canadian publications InToronto and Outlooks are owned by a company that operates the relationship service Preferred Partners and won’t take hookup service ads either, he says.
Ok so, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that if it was a male editor this wouldn’t be happening – sorry but it’s true.
Secondly, if “queer families” don’t want their children seeing them, then, don’t leave them out!
DAH !
“ps … I bet the so called “queer families” are lesbian mothers.
Coz it’s ok to discriminate against gay male sex, but if we were to say anything – WATCH OUT!!
This has been coming for a long time….self censorship dressed in a mantle of respectability. I hope Ms.Morgan remembers to renew her Progressive Conservative party member ship and vote for Mr. Harper again and again and again… Sadly Mr. Freeman is wasting his breath trying to explain to this woman what Squirt is all about. And we shouldn’t have to explain….we are Gay men, this is part of what we do.
I have to agree with JaseLovesCum. I’m sorry to think that Lesbians would feel that way. What about the “Straight” newspapers that have advertisements for Cruiseline in them. Are the kids only going to be allowed to read Gay Literature? Definately not fair.
LOL
aren’t you now discriminating against lesbians? although – and i besides…isn’t it a little premature to assume that it’s just lesbians who may have an issue? gay men also have families…
either way – some ads don’t leave much to the imagination – remember – gay doesn’t always have to mean “in your face sex(uality)”
she need to get back to the kitchen where she belongs, always trouble when you give a woman some power. Just look at female PM’s and presidents
So long as there is freedom of the press, there will also be the freedom of each and every publication to accept or reject any content — editorial or advertising — it deems incompatible with its mission. Outwards has that freedom, and has chosen to exercise it. But so does the Pink Triangle Press/Xtra. Rather than complain about the “unfairness” of the situation, just hold your head high and continue to provide the best product you can to an audience that appreciates what you do. Man up and move on.
One of the many moral and ethical ‘reforms’ that will come about the more we seek out hetero-normative legitimacy through the slightly misguided agenda of “marriage equality”. it’s clear from this example, that ‘queer’ families is even more bound by a moral code that enforces heterosexual capitalist ideals of gender and sexuality. what’s even sadder is the amount of guys in this forum who’ve responded with such blatant misogyny…it’s like….totally dumb. RicJ and JaselovesCum, you are both dicks…..and not in a good way. Your level of stupidity is embarrassing.
It’s important to know your audience.
I just want Squirt.org/Pink Triangle Press to design and publish a great ipad application. Looking at squirt.org in a web browser (with my login) on my ipad stinks. And dont say it will be refused by Apple…if done right they will accept and publish. Why dont you (Pink Triangle Press) have a ipad app yet? or an Android app?
Just a thought. If you depend on advertising/marketing in print today to get you heard and seen you are not using the internet correctly. Bottom line the magazine does not have that many readers. I have not even heard of this print magazine. Cheers.
I dont personally care about gay marriage I want to live in a world of true choices Thank god the gay marriage was a short lived debate in Canada. Now lets move on. So those that choose that “lifestyle” should get to have their own magazines. Just cause something is gay has to include everything. It is not like folk everywhere can’t access sex sites etc.
I dont really get the lesbian bashing on this thread. Personally I know why more uptight “log cabin” type gay men then women.
I think squirt will continue to just fine.
I know that this may sound like heresy but perhaps Cruiseline and Squirt need to hire a new ad agency so that their ads are good enough for all their intended publication spots. And perhaps management at those sites needs a reality check for 2012. Maybe the advertising campaign those sites are using is too “in your face” with sexuality or really out of date with current advertising standards. Just a thought and observation. I know that I won’t pull up squirt’s homepage on my computer when I have company over because it is so “hard-on centric.” Believe me I am no prude either, but at some point hard-ons don’t need to be in every picture. There is no reason an ad for squirt, or any other site, needs to be offensive/suggestive to the point of blatant sex when there are lots of inventive, creative alternatives.
All I can say is that every business does what they feel is necessary for them to be successful. I would love for someone from Squirt or Cruiseline to monitor how Outwords circulation is affected by this and let us know. I think they will find that male homosexuals are a little more sensitive about things like this compared to female homosexuals. As far as the “queer families” comment goes my question is does it not make sense to either keep it out of the house or put it up if you don’t want your kids to see it, read it, or know about it? And how do you explain to them what you and your partner are doing in the bedroom when they walk in on you?
targeting specific companies and saying “i’m going to give these other companies the blind eye treatment”
let the advertisements be truthful to the intent of the company so you don’t have a pack of teen girls walking into a bathouse before their grad/prom night.
It is hard to know what really is motivating them but the families pushback excuse sounded tacked on and frankly made up or exaggerated but other businesses or one prominent one that has dollar clout is likely swaying them. It is especially odd to me since all of advertising leans heavily on the overuse of sex anyway, sex sells so saying we don’t run sex ads is a bit insincere from an advertising medium. I would welcome a new gay publication published by squirt that can take off as the recession ends the market isn’t going anywhere they will be there when the cash flows again. Some of these GLBT mags over play political and legal talk anyway they used to be fun AND political anyone remember GAB in Chicago? At any rate there is political work to do and not all of Gay life is cruising and clubs but they did not call us GAY because we were stuffy legal eagles either, we are all about so much that these mags are drying up not just because of recession but because they are DRY and Gays just are not dry we are colorful fun and politically powerful.
Some interesting opinions. I personally respect everyone’s right to their beliefs, yet that does not mean I have to except them as my ownn individual way of thinkng. Perhaps heterophobic thinking and gender war attitudes hinders a solidarity of all human beings. Is not our sexuality just that, one part of one’s unique individuality.
Fuck them! Families and other excuses. Squirt is meant for online, not magazines! I live in The United States, 49 single and Bi. This is great for men whom like this type of entertainment and lifestyle. As for advertising, i’m sure you can find someone else.