News Is Out, the pioneering national collaboration that includes six of the leading local and queer-owned LGBTQ+ media companies across the country — including Dallas Voice — this week launched its Map of Us podcast series, designed to “bring the findings of the LGBTQ+ Media Mapping Project to life through candid conversations with the journalists and publishers doing the work.”
All of the Map of Us episodes are available now on The Buckeye Flame podcast network and all major platforms.
News Is Out Managing Director Dana Piccoli explained that the podcast series is a companion to the Media Mapping Project, released last September by Tracy Baim and Hanna Siemaszko and funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, with support from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, Local Media Association and News Is Out.
Baim and Siemaszko’s report documented 174 LGBTQ+ media outlets across the U.S., “confirming what many in the field already knew: Queer media is widespread, deeply local and operating on a razor-thin margins. Nearly half of the outlets run on less than $100,000 a year, yet they’re covering their communities in places where other media isn’t.”
Each of the podcast episodes focuses on one of the core findings from the project, pairing that finding with the voices of people navigating those realities, Piccoli said, including topics like the economics of queer media, reporting under threat in states passing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, LGBTQ+ news deserts where no dedicated outlets exist, collaboration as survival and who holds power within queer journalism.
Piccoli hosts the podcasts which feature News Is Out publishers, editors and reports alongside special guests from across the queer media ecosystem.
The opening episode features Baim in conversation with journalist Alexander Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Blade discussing why the mapping project exists and what it reveals about this moment in queer media. Later episodes spotlight publishers and editors from across the country, including a conversation between Dallas Voice Publisher Leo Cusimano and Tagg Magazine Publisher Sondra Morris talking about collaboration between LGBTQ+ media outlets in episode 5, and Dallas Voice Managing Editor Tammye Nash talking with Buckeye Flame Editor Ken Schneck and QNotesCarolinas Publisher Jim Yarbrough about the future of funding for LGBTQ+ media in episode 7.
Listen to The Map of Us now on The Buckeye Flame or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
— Tammye Nash
This is fantastic news! I’m really intrigued by the idea of bringing the LGBTQ+ Media Mapping Project findings to life through direct conversations with the journalists. I wonder how challenging it is to synthesize such diverse, local perspectives into a cohesive national narrative for the podcast. Looking forward to listening!