Georgia Voice update
Hi, everyone. We just wanted to update you on the latest with the Georgia Voice as we move forward to our launch next month.
First, thank you to everyone who applied for the sales executive position; we’re thrilled to say we had a several great applicants and we have made a terrific hire. We also are preparing our new office on Monroe Drive, just a half mile from Ansley Mall. Tomorrow, we’ll be transforming it from an institutional off-white to the much more fabulous shades of Turtle Dove, Restful, and Mountain Haze! (Hey, our lives are hectic with deadlines, we’ll need some peaceful colors!)
You may have read in other media outlets about our efforts to acquire the assets of Southern Voice, including the archives, which we will donate to a library to make sure our community’s history is properly preserved and available for future use. Here are a few links if you want to read more about that:
Project Q Atlanta: “SoVo, former LGBT pubs to sell for $26,200″
Creative Loafing: “Southern Voice, David assets selling for the low, low price of $8,000″
Finally, we are seeking MUSIC, TV and SPORTS columnists. If you have previously submitted your contact information to be a writer for Georgia Voice, please email us again to express your interest specifically in these columns. For each, our ideal writer(s) would be people who closely follow these subjects, so that you can suggest relevant column topics of LGBT interest, in addition to story ideas from Georgia Voice editors.
To apply, please submit your resume and a short cover letter that states your experience covering these topics and includes three story ideas that you think would be relevant for the months of March and April. Links to previously published articles are also helpful. Please email to lbrown@thegavoice.com
Finally, please become a fan of The Georgia Voice on Facebook. You can visit our page here or search for “The GA Voice.” You can also follow us on Twitter.
Thanks, and we look forward to serving you soon!
Laura Douglas-Brown
GA Voice is hiring!
GA Voice is hiring as we prepare for our launch in March! If you are a skilled sales person with the drive to help build a vibrant new LGBT media outlet, we’d love to hear from you.
Here is everything you need to know:
JOB DESCRIPTION
GA Voice is looking for an enthusiastic and knowledgeable sales person with the confidence, passion and hunger necessary to help us build a leading print and online LGBT media outlet. The successful candidate will be able to not only successfully sell advertising , but also help develop the company’s position as the leading LGBT publication in Atlanta and throughout the state. This role calls for a skill set that goes beyond the traditional sales profile to both create excitement with potential advertisers and ardently serve those businesses that make a commitment to GA Voice with their advertising dollars.
RESPONSIBILITIES
• Prepare and deliver sales presentations to new and existing customers
• Effectively service assigned account bases while developing new accounts
• Process all correspondence and paperwork related to accounts
• Deliver advertising or illustration proofs to customers for approval
• Draw up contracts for advertising work
• Recommend appropriate sizes and formats for advertising, depending on medium being used
• Inform customers of available options for advertisement artwork, and provide samples
• Obtain and study information about clients’ products, needs, problems, advertising history, and business practices in order to offer effective product assistance
In one sentence the ideal candidate will be able to: build and sustain relationships; resolve concerns; close the deal, and ensure client satisfaction.
IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE
• 3 years of outside advertising sales experience, ideally with an alternative publication
• An understanding of and enthusiasm for online social media/marketing/networking and the power it has to change the way business is done
• A proven ability to effectively generate leads from a diverse client base
• Experience in effectively managing a number of accounts
• Minimum undergraduate degree or significant sales leadership, Advertising, Marketing or related field experience
• Excellent communication, questioning, listening and presentation skills
• An individual of high integrity, energy and enthusiasm; self-directed and motivated
• An individual who is both creative and practical; one who consistently delivers superior results
• An initiator in both independent thinking and establishing relationships
• Entrepreneurial attitude – overcome any obstacle; creative; willing to go the extra mile
Submit your resume to: tbatlantaga@msn.com
Fundraising dinner at WaterHaven on Dec. 19
We are so grateful to the wonderful folks at WaterHaven! The restaurant, located at 75 5th St. in Atlanta, will host a fundraising dinner for the GA Voice this Saturday, Dec. 19.
The restaurant will donate 50 percent of food sales during Saturday’s dinner hours to support start-up costs for our efforts to create a new LGBT news outlet for Atlanta and the rest of Georgia.
WaterHaven is known for using local ingredients in a menu featuring creative takes on familiar favorites, like fried green tomatoes with goat cheese and pumpkin seed pesto. With dinner hours from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., you can spend the evening or stop by for a great dinner before heading out to holiday parties.
Reservations are requested and can be made by calling the restaurant at (404) 214-6740 or by clicking here.
Please help us spread the word and raise money for the launch of the GA Voice! You can also donate directly to support our efforts here.
GA Voice on the way
Many thanks to everyone who turned out Dec. 3 for our Save SoVo community meeting. The standing-room only crowd offered lots of excellent ideas, great feedback, and plenty of affirmation of the need for a new LGBT news outlet for Atlanta. Approximately 80 people attended: by overwhelming vote, you selected GA Voice as our new name. Out & Equal also pledged $500 for our new effort, and several new donations flowed in after the meeting. Thank you to everyone!
At the meeting, we outlined our vision for a community-owned, community-led LGBT news outlet that follows the same professional standards to which all ethical journalism aspires.
What does that mean? Community-owned means that we will be looking to you, and others in our community, as investors in our new company. We won’t be part of a national chain and we won’t be beholden to any single investor or organization.
Community-led means that decisions – both about coverage and about how to grow our business in a way that is responsible and sustainable – will be made right here, by staff that know and understand our local community, and not dictated by afar or forced into a “one size fits all” mold. It also means that we will always want and value your feedback and input, whether you are a community leader, business owner or a reader with thoughts to share.
We envision a news news outlet that will publish in two ways:
The first will be through a robust website updated daily, likely several times daily, that gives you breaking news as it happens, updates on ongoing stories as they evolve, the day’s top news and events, plus video, photos, surveys and comments to make your voice heard. And of course, Twitter, Facebook and other ways to get headlines to you immediately.
The second way we will publish will be through a companion print publication that will offer you more depth than is often possible in the breaking news-driven world of the web. You’ll get inspiring and in-depth features, and more analysis and investigative reporting on the news. This is where we will take a step back and look at the big picture of a story; what all of the news we have been reporting on the web ultimately means, the questions it raises, and how it impacts you. We’ll debate issues on our opinion pages and encourage you to take part in the dialogue about how all of this affects our community.
Here are links to the latest news coverage of our efforts:
Creative Loafing: “Goodbye Southern Voice, hello GA Voice”
Project Q Atlanta: “Vote keeps former SoVo staff’s ‘Voice’”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (includes incorrect address for our new website, coming soon: Really it is www.thegavoice.com): “Southern Voice replacement set for 2010 launch”
WABE News (90.1 FM; local NPR and PBS; link includes audio): “New gay publication planned for Atlanta”
Please keep visiting us here for updates on our efforts, and be sure to click “Join Our Cause” to donate or give us your contact information and feedback. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter; just click the buttons on this page.
Thank you again for all of your support!
SoVo founder Chris Cash (center) with Mark Dupont and Joan Sherwood at the Dec. 3 community meeting. (Photos by Dyana Bagby)
Laura Douglas-Brown, former SoVo editor, and Atlanta writer Rich Eldredge, known for years as the AJC's Peach Buzz columnist.
Community meeting to name your new Voice
Please join us for a community meeting on Dec. 3 to discuss what you feel is most important in a new LGBT news outlet for Atlanta, and to help name your new voice.
The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at First Existentialist Congregation, 470 Candler Park Dr. in Atlanta. Many thanks to Rick Westbrook and the good folks at First E for donating the space.
Come to the meeting and be the first to know the new name! Here’s how it will work: To submit a name for consideration, please email your suggestion to savesovo@gmail.com with “name” in the subject line. Please send your suggestions by midnight on Sunday.
We’ll narrow them down to a few choices, make sure that they aren’t copyrighted by anyone else, then you’ll get to vote at next Thursday’s meeting.
In the meantime, please keep the ideas, support and, yes, donations coming.
Here are those details again:
Name suggestions: Email to savesovo@gmail.com by midnight on Sunday, Nov. 29.
Community meeting: Thursday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m. at First Existentialist, 470 Candler Park Dr.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. The events of the last few days have certainly shown us how much we have to be thankful for in Atlanta’s LGBT community.
Matching grant to help Save SoVo
Today, we are thrilled to announce that we will receive a $12,000 matching grant from the Lloyd E. Russell Foundation to support our efforts to create a new LGBT news source for Atlanta.
Lloyd Russell, a gay Atlanta activist and businessman, created the foundation “to promote unity, visibility and self esteem within the gay, bi, lesbian, transgendered, questioning (GBLTQ) and leather communities and to promote a positive image in the Atlanta area and throughout the Southeastern United States through community activities and services.” Since his death, the foundation has funded a variety of community projects in Atlanta; recent grants have supported YouthPride events, renovations to create the new Phillip Rush Center, and the Transgender Day of Remembrance, to list just a few.
It’s only been a week since Southern Voice shut its doors, and momentum to save SoVo’s mission is growing quickly. We are inspired by the support from the Russell Foundation, and also from the donations that have already been submitted through SaveSoVo.com.
Now we need your help to continue working toward our goal of launching a community-owned, community-led news outlet to provide professional, ethical journalism on LGBT issues in Atlanta and beyond. All donations, no matter how small or large, are deeply appreciated and bring us that much closer to our launch.
To donate and submit your contact information and ideas, please click here. You can also click “Join Our Cause” on the left side of this page.
Thank you,
Laura Douglas-Brown and Chris Cash
The Future of Southern Voice
It’s been a difficult week to say the least. None of the hardworking staff at Southern Voice expected that on Monday morning, we would find the locks changed and a note on our door stating that our parent company had ceased operations.
The rest of the week has been a blur of sorrow, anger, planning, and most importantly, gratitude — the support that so many of you have shown to Southern Voice, and to me and other staff personally, means more than any words can ever express. I know I haven’t responded to many of you yet. Please know I am thankful to everyone, and will be in touch as soon as I can.
Many of you have said our community still needs a credible, professional, ethical source of LGBT news. I couldn’t agree more. And while I won’t get into what I think happened to Window Media and why, suffice to say that it didn’t happen for lack of stories, lack of dedicated staff, or lack of community support.
Which brings me to where we stand now. Chris Cash, the original founder of Southern Voice, and I have been talking intensely all week. She sold the paper in 1997, had reached out to try to help save it as Window Media fell apart, and didn’t get the chance. Now we want to work together to make sure our community’s Voice — many voices, really — is not silenced.
As of today, we have a mailbox, a bank account, and a domain name — www.savesovo.com — that mark the official public start of our efforts.
We know we can’t really save SoVo — that name now belongs to a bankruptcy court and lienholders — but we can save SoVo’s mission. We want to try.
We’ll have a website up in the next few days, where you can give us your contact information to receive updates; tell us how you may be able or willing to help; keep up-to-date on our efforts; and if you feel able, even donate to help fund the initial stages of this project.
It won’t be tax deductible, but please know that we are volunteering our time — any money we raise will simply help offset startup costs, like web hosting, incorporation and initial printing when we get to that stage — that we are currently paying out of pocket.
We’re also planning a community meeting for the week after Thanksgiving (we’re awaiting confirmation on availability for the venue) where we will invite everyone to come, tell us what you want from your LGBT news outlet, and help us name our new voice. We’ve started a ball rolling, but we want this to belong to all of us.
Our vision now is a community-owned, community-led LGBT news outlet that focuses on reporting LGBT issues in Atlanta and beyond. We’ll publish through a robust website and a companion print publication. We’ll share more as we know more, and we want to know what you think.
As I said at the beginning, it’s been a difficult week. But it’s also exciting and inspiring, and we’re ready to continue the fight. Please join us.
With deepest gratitude,
Laura
