Robert Moore, ‘pioneer of local LGBT media’ who co-founded weekly newspaper in 1984, sells company to 2 longtime employees
HANDING OVER THE REINS | Robert Moore, center, is selling Voice Publishing Company Inc. — the parent company to Dallas Voice, the Dallas Voice Yellow Pages and online product developer Digital Seltzer — to longtime employees Terry Thompson, left, and Leo Cusimano. (Arnold Wayne Jones/Dallas Voice)
Dallas Voice co-founder and longtime publisher Robert Moore’s tireless work and commitment to the LGBT community over the decades have made him an institution in himself.
Moore, 57, announced his retirement this week after almost 29 years at the paper and more than 1,500 issues, making him one of the longest-serving publishers at an LGBT publication.
He plans to spend time traveling and exploring other cultures, beginning with a biking trip in the south of Spain in May.
“I want to get out of the bubble. I want to get off the beaten track,” he said. “I just have this hunger, this passion, for seeing places and going places I have never been before.”
Moore also announced this week that he is selling Voice Publishing Company Inc. — the parent company to Dallas Voice, the Dallas Voice Yellow Pages and online product developer Digital Seltzer — to longtime employees Leo Cusimano and Terry Thompson.
After working at Dallas Gay News for two years, Moore started Dallas Voice with Don Ritz and William Marberry in 1984. The three each put in $250 and began to put the paper together week-by-week in a small Oak Lawn office, not knowing what to expect.
For the first year, Ritz and Moore planned the paper and Marberry in Houston would put it together using a printer in Galveston. The paper would ride the Greyhound bus on Friday mornings, and the two back in Dallas would distribute it.
“It was a bare-boned, shoestring operation,” Moore recalls.
Moore and Ritz later bought out Marberry and moved the operations to Dallas. The two remained business partners until Ritz left the business in 1998 after battling HIV for a number of years. When Ritz died in 2001, Moore became the sole owner.
Ritz’s departure to spend his time in good health doing what he dreamed of doing has been an inspiration to Moore, who said he’s now ready to move on.
“He had three years of being free and being able to do what he wanted to do. That’s not very long. I think about that,” Moore said. “I am still young enough and fit enough that I have a lot of time left, I hope, as long as a DART bus doesn’t get me, so I’m afforded that opportunity.”
Moore has seen the progression of LGBT issues from the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and the rise of activism during that time to the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and anti-sodomy laws with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling them unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas.
“I have been there at the absolute worst of the AIDS crisis when anytime you read the word celebration it was a sad word because you knew that the next part of that was a celebration of life for someone who had left us,” Moore said.
Reflecting on his time at Dallas Voice, Moore said he was also greatly affected by the story of State District Judge Jack Hampton, who sentenced a murderer to a lighter sentence in 1988 because his victims were gay, and the election of the first openly gay Dallas City Councilman Craig McDaniel in 1993.
Over the decades, Moore’s seen the paper through a lot of changes, from paper size and a growing staff to several redesigns and technological upgrades, all while maintaining journalistic integrity in its coverage.
“From the very beginning, we decided to trust our readers and simply tell them the story, give them the facts, and allow them to form their own opinions,” Moore said. “It was very important to me and to Don that the Voice did not become our personal soapbox.”
Stories of Moore’s time at Dallas Voice mention his even temper, witty personality and wise business judgment of a young man who grew into his own at a company he started with a little bit of money and lot of community support.
Philadelphia Gay News Publisher Mark Segal called Moore “one of the great LGBT publishers” and “a professional from the start and a pioneer of local LGBT media.”
Tracy Baim, publisher of Windy City Times, said Moore has “always been a focused, professional voice of reason in the landscape of gay media.”
“Those involved in this niche have tended to be large personalities that often clashed with one another,” Baim said. “But Robert always seems to be the calm in the middle of the storm. His voice will be missed in our gay media gatherings.”
Bob Witeck, president of the Washington, D.C.-based LGBT marketing company Witeck Communications Inc., called Moore “one of those rare, and too often unsung heroes in our community.”
“His tenure at the Dallas Voice has made him the glue in that community, and he has spent the last three decades (and more) serving our unquenched appetite for news and knowledge,” Witeck said. “It is good to know he’s just changing directions, and earning some rewards for the sizeable contributions he’s made.”
Todd Evans, president and CEO of Rivendell Media, said he’s not surprised Moore is retiring because LGBT media is often more challenging than mainstream media because of the issues of equality that are confronted on a daily basis.
“This business is a labor of love because there are so many things that can get you down,” he said, adding that Moore has overcome those challenges to make the publication a staple in LGBT media. “Robert has made Dallas Voice essential to Dallas and to Texas.”
Cece Cox, CEO at Resource Center Dallas, said she remembers Dallas Voice linking her to the LGBT community when she first moved to Dallas in 1984.
She said Moore’s dedication to LGBT news has provided “a really valuable service to the community.”
“It provided a way to put my life in a context of the larger world. And it still does,” Cox said. “Robert’s part of that legacy and he’s continued that legacy.”
Don Maison, president and CEO at AIDS Services of Dallas, said Dallas Voice has come a long way in the years since it started because of the strong leadership.
“They started with nothing. Virtually nothing,” Maison said. “And now he’s got a well-run, well-respected company.”
As for turning the company over to Cusimano and Thompson, Moore said the two have often run things during his extensive travels over the last five years and he knows they’re ready.
“I think for the Voice as an institution it was time for me to go and turn it over to two other people who have a real enthusiasm for this place and are dedicated to this place and the community that we serve,” he said.
Cusimano has worked at Dallas Voice for 21 years. Currently advertising director, he will become publisher. Thompson, promotions manager, has been with the company for 10 years and will be president.
Cusimano said Moore will be greatly missed but his time at Dallas Voice isn’t over, as he’ll become a consultant to the company.
“It’s this bittersweet kind of thing where I want to see him follow his dream, but I’ll miss him dearly,” Cusimano said. “It’s up to us to set the direction of the company, but it’ll be helpful to have Robert in the wing to ensure we have that additional support.”
Thompson said he believes that the local LGBT community will always have a need for LGBT media. He expects the company to continue to thrive and grow with the support and commitment of the staff.
“There will always be a market for niche media. We’ll continue to focus on what’s important to our readers, which is the LGBT market, and report on local news,” he said.
Candy Marcum, Stonewall Behavorial Health founder, wrote an advice column for the paper for several years in the ’80s and again in 2000. She said that Moore has grown up with the business and his choice of successors is an evolution for the company.
“The paper is changing ownership, but a lot of the history and institutional knowledge is staying,” Marcum said. “I feel some sadness because he’s the last of the original guys, but I feel hopeful of the future leadership because they are a hybrid of historical perspective and the future.”
While Moore is ready to embark on new adventures when his retirement begins April 1, he remains immensely grateful to the LGBT community for their enduring support over the years.
“The city and the community here have been really good to me and I’m very grateful for my life here and the support that we’ve had through the years. And I’m extremely proud of the LGBT community here,” Moore said.
“There are a lot of small stories about groups and institutions here that when taken together paint a picture of a community that’s come a long way and has matured and is still growing and active.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 29, 2013,
