Over the past two and a half years, we’ve featured national, regional and local dignitaries in this Q&A series. Some of our interview subjects have become our friends over the course of our working together on the blog. Today, we’re featuring a man who is a longtime friend of mine. Nicholas F. Benton is the owner-editor of the Falls Church News-Press, an independent weekly newspaper in the Washington suburbs that he founded in 1991.
A native of California, Benton earned a graduate degree from the Pacific School of Religion in 1969, and was the co-founder of the Berkeley, Calif., Gay Liberation Front in 1970. His essay, “Berkeley and the Fight for an Effeminist, Socially-Transformative Gay Identity,” appears in the just-released anthology, “Smash the Church, Smash the State, The Early Days of Gay Liberation” by City Lights Books, published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the founding of the modern gay liberation movement.
The News-Press is a relative newcomer in the Washington media landscape, but thanks to Nick’s commitment (and his superior networking skills), it has fast become a must-read for many political and media leaders. The fact that this “mainstream” daily newspaper is helmed by an openly gay man is significant and still fairly unique in the publishing world.
In my daily worklife, I spend a great deal of time thinking about how best to work with all types of media. As the media landscape continues to grow and change, I’d suggest that regional independent newspapers such as the News-Press are just as important as other news sources in reaching specific audience segments. Let me know what you think once you've read my two-part Q&A with Nick.
Today, in part one, Nick talks about the paper, his background and his thoughts about being openly gay in the newspaper business. In part two tomorrow, Nick will address the challenges of covering our community, the future of regional newspapers and the impact of the Internet on his business.
Ben Finzel: Tell us about the Falls Church News-Press.
Nicholas F. Benton: I founded the Falls Church News-Press virtually single-handedly and on a shoestring in early 1991. I published my first newspaper at age 7, founded a paper in junior high school with my best friend, was editor of my high school and college papers, worked for my hometown paper, and after graduating from theological seminary, was the right-hand man to the owner of the legendary Berkeley Barb. I wrote the editorial for the first-ever edition of the Gay Sunshine newspaper, produced two editions with my friend of the Effeminist newspaper, and came to Washington, D.C. in 1985 to be a White House correspondent, which I did for four years.
You can say I have printer’s ink in my blood. I founded the Falls Church News-Press as a weekly newspaper circulated in the Eastern Fairfax County, Falls Church, Tysons Corner, McLean and North Arlington regions of Northern Virginia, all inside the Beltway. It is now in its 18th year of consecutive weekly publication. The circulation has grown from 7,200 to its peak at 36,500. It focuses on local news about the region in which it circulates, but also has features and columns of wider interest, including Roger Ebert’s movie reviews, columns by Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks and Helen Thomas, a poker column, a wine and spirits column, my own political affairs column and Wayne Besen’s weekly “Anything But Straight” column focusing on LGBT current events, among others.
It is widely recognized as the most progressive newspaper in Virginia, circulating in an area that has been critical to the margins of victory for Democrats in a spate of recent statewide elections. It was one of only two in all Virginia, for example, to endorse Sen. Jim Webb when he sought the Democratic nomination in 2006, and the only one based in Northern Virginia to endorse President Obama last year. It was hailed by the City Paper of Washington, D.C. as the “Best Remnant of the Liberal Media,” in the City’s Paper’s “Best Of” edition in 2008. It has twice been named the “Business of the Year” by the Falls Church City Council (1991 and 2001), and I have also been named the “Businessman of the Year” by the same body (2007), and received the “Pillar of the Community” award from the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce twice (1992 and 2003) and was honored as the grand marshal of the Falls Church Memorial Day Parade in 2001.
Ben Finzel: As a small business in the newspaper industry, you’re at the intersection of two troubled industries in the global economic meltdown. Has being openly gay helped your ability to manage through the current economic situation?
Nick Benton: That question postulates an interesting benefit of being openly gay that I hadn’t thought of, unless being gay has somehow inclined me to be frugal, unwilling to take too many financial risks, to hold on the core values of what makes for a good newspaper, to treat my small staff well, and to have an editorial perspective that most of my readers love.
My revenues are down in the current situation, but we’re still in there pitching because people, including my advertisers, know how popular and passionately-read the paper is. By contrast, many newspapers have sewn the seeds of their own demise by years of maximizing their profits through cheapening the quality of their reporting, from the big urban papers to many community newspaper models, including in this region.
If my paper goes down, it won’t be for that reason, and we’re not going down. I have not yet figured out how to win business simply by virtue of being gay, of thereby having a gay-owned business, but I am certainly interested in ways to do that, though I am often amused at the thought of what I might have to do to “prove” to a prospective advertiser that I am gay.
Ben Finzel: Well, something to think about, to be sure! Thanks Nick – more to come tomorrow.
My revenues are down in the current situation, but we’re still in there pitching because people, including my advertisers, know how popular and passionately-read the paper is. By contrast, many newspapers have sewn the seeds of their own demise by years of maximizing their profits through cheapening the quality of their reporting, from the big urban papers to many community newspaper models, including in this region.
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That question postulates an interesting benefit of being openly gay that I hadn’t thought of, unless being gay has somehow inclined me to be frugal, unwilling to take too many financial risks, to hold on the core values of what makes for a good newspaper, to treat my small staff well, and to have an editorial perspective that most of my readers love.
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