LPI Media
Encyclopedia
LPI Media was the largest gay
and lesbian
publisher in the United States
. The company targeted LGBT
communities and published such magazines, books, and web sites, with its magazines alone having more than 8.2 million copies distributed each year. The Advocate
and Out
magazines were the two largest circulation LGBT magazines in the United States, each with corresponding websites; Advocate.com and OUT.com, respectively.
Additional publications included Out Traveler, HIV Plus, and LGBT penned titles through Alyson Books
making it the "largest publisher of gay and lesbian print publications" and thus the largest print voice of the LGBT communities, including transgender
and to a lesser degree bisexual people.
They were also parent owners of Specialty Publications
, which produces adult (pornography
) publications MEN
, formerly Advocate Men, FreshMen, Unzipped, and [2]. Specialty Publications was one of the largest gay adult erotica web and video production companies in the world.
raid at the Black Cat bar in Los Angeles in 1966 prompting a handful of gay men to start a mimeographed sheet newsletter for the gay community which grew into The Advocate
magazine the following year and remained the only national LGBT
magazine for nearly twenty-five years.
In February 2000, Liberation acquired Out Publishing Inc. which publishes Out
and HIV Plus magazines. Then president and chief executive of Liberation, James Franklin, said the deal would "move the print properties into the electronic arena." and added that the Internet
was popular with gay and lesbian readers because of the closet
factor. PlanetOut attempted in March 2000 to merge with LPI, but it was called off in March 2001.
Out Traveler, a magazine spin-off of Out launched in 2003.
In November 2005 LPI merged with Planet Out, which mainly has developed online properties to become the world's largest media company targeting the LGBT communities. LPI's "solid accounts list of fashion, retail and consumer packaged goods advertisers" was cited amongst the strong selling points. Criticism of the merger has centered on two aspects; that a consolidation
of national media outlets of a minority community is unlikely to add diversity
of voices and that the publications were established and supported in an effort to secure human rights
for gays and lesbians but now are instead delivering a market share
to corporations.
In April, 2008, press reports said that the magazines published by LPI as well as the porn magazines published by Specialty Publications were to be sold by PlanetOut to Regent Releasing
, which owns here!, a cable television network catering to LGBT audiences.
A SEC filing
indicates that the agreement was completed in August 2008, with Here Media Inc. the new owner of LPI, Specialty Publications
, and LPI's book company, Alyson Publications
, "the (LGBT) community's leading national news source since 1967." It is the oldest continuing gay publication in the United States with the website for the magazine containing approximately thirty percent of the print issue online and is updated daily. First published by Dick Michaels and Bill Rand, of the Los Angeles activist group PRIDE in Los Angeles in 1967 as The Los Angeles Advocate, it was renamed The Advocate in 1969 and distributed nationally. David Goodstein, an investment banker from San Francisco, bought the publication in 1974 instituting several changes to the publication fully transforming it into a national news magazine covering events important to the LGBT community, including the gay rights movement, art and culture. Goodstein's later editorials reflected his years as a participant in the LGBT community's fight for civil liberties. Soon after Goodstein's death 1985, the magazine changed hands through acquisitions, and was subsequently published by LPI Media, a division of PlanetOut Inc.
, a "popular lifestyle magazine that celebrates the spirit of gay culture, including fashion and style, trends, society, and the arts", was founded by Michael Goff in 1992. A key ingredient in Out's success in attracting mainstream and high-end advertisers who had never considered targeting the LGBT market was the magazine's offering of a safe environment in which no adult material or personal classifieds were published. By removing this barrier, advertisers were comfortable to utilize this new national print media vehicle to reach a marginalized audience and effectively showcase their products and services. With the advertising revenue Out was able to secure world-class writers and contributors such as writers Josh Kilmer-Purcell
, Dale Peck
, Dan Savage
, Mark Simpson
, Michael Joseph Gross
, Normal Bob Smith, and photographers such as Ben Watts
. In less than two years, Out circulation and scope of advertisers surpassed that of then forty-year-old The Advocate
, then the only other national gay magazine.
Plus magazine is based in Los Angeles and was founded by Anne-christine D'Adesky
in 1998. Instead of subscriptions the "national magazine [is] distributed at doctors' offices and organizations offering services for people with AIDS" including AIDS service organization
s, HIV community-based groups, and physicians’ offices as well as some other qualifying groups and organizations Offering "the latest stories on research, economics, and treatment" HIV Plus provides "news that raises awareness of HIV-related cultural and policy developments in the United States and throughout the world" including issues of "cultural stereotypes about incarceration, drug use, and HIV".
Notable writers and contributors include photographer Steve Azzara, contributing fitness editor Sam Jensen Page
, columnist LeRoy Whitfield
whose "Native Tongue" column ran in HIV Plus magazine since May 2004 and was "one of the magazine's most popular features".
is a publisher founded in Boston, Massachusetts by Sasha Alyson which specializes in feminist and LGBT fiction and nonfiction. Notable books and authors published by Alyson include: Young, Gay and Proud
; the Dykes to Watch Out For
cartoon series, by Alison Bechdel
; Melting Point, Doing it for Daddy, Macho Sluts
and Doc and Fluff by Patrick Califia
; Latter Days
, novelization by T. Fabris for the 2003
major motion picture of the same name; The Femme Mystique and Pillow Talk edited by Lesléa Newman
; Revolutionary Voices
: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology; Love, Bourbon Street: Reflections of New Orleans winner 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Anthology; Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out
edited by Loraine Hutchins
and Lani Ka'ahumanu
and The Bisexual's Guide to the Universe, winner 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual category.
, an American publisher of adult gay erotic and pornography
publications. Their Men
magazine (formerly Advocate Men) has been the top-selling gay male erotic magazine for over 25 years, and tends to portray men aged 25 to 40. Freshmen
is an American erotic magazine published monthly since 1991 and is geared toward gay and bisexual men features photos of men aged 18–30 years old.
Freshmen has long been the best-seller in its genre
and features top-line male porn models from Bel Ami
, Falcon
, and others; Freshmen specializes in young but not twinkish
men, primarily 18 to 25 but some to age 30. Other items, such as calendars and playing cards, are also published using the same label.
"Freshman of the Year" contests are held with many fledgling porn stars going on to greater success including Sebastian Bonnet
, Roman Heart, Dick McKay, Zack Randall, Marcus Allen
,, and Billy Brandt
. Specialty Publications
also produced Unzipped, and [2] making it one of the largest gay adult erotica web and video production companies in the world.
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
publisher in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The company targeted LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
communities and published such magazines, books, and web sites, with its magazines alone having more than 8.2 million copies distributed each year. The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
and Out
Out (magazine)
Out is a popular gay and lesbian fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any gay monthly publication in the United States. It carries itself in a similar editorial manner to Details, Esquire, and GQ. Out was published by PlanetOut Inc...
magazines were the two largest circulation LGBT magazines in the United States, each with corresponding websites; Advocate.com and OUT.com, respectively.
Additional publications included Out Traveler, HIV Plus, and LGBT penned titles through Alyson Books
Alyson Publications
Alyson Books, formerly known as Alyson Publications, is a book publishing house which specialises in LGBT fiction and non-fiction. Former publisher Don Weise described it as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature" and "the home of award-winning books in the areas of memoir,...
making it the "largest publisher of gay and lesbian print publications" and thus the largest print voice of the LGBT communities, including transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
and to a lesser degree bisexual people.
They were also parent owners of Specialty Publications
Specialty Publications
Specialty Publications is an American publisher of gay erotic material.Specialty Publications was owned by LPI Media until LPI's publishing holdings were purchased in August 2008 by Regent Entertainment. Writers included Mickey Skee, J.C. Adams, Billy Masters, Leo Buck and Jeremy Spencer, among...
, which produces adult (pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
) publications MEN
Men (magazine)
Men is an American pornographic magazine, published by Specialty Publications based in Los Angeles and is the largest-selling magazine of that type in the country...
, formerly Advocate Men, FreshMen, Unzipped, and [2]. Specialty Publications was one of the largest gay adult erotica web and video production companies in the world.
History
Liberation Publications began with a policePolice
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
raid at the Black Cat bar in Los Angeles in 1966 prompting a handful of gay men to start a mimeographed sheet newsletter for the gay community which grew into The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
magazine the following year and remained the only national LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
magazine for nearly twenty-five years.
In February 2000, Liberation acquired Out Publishing Inc. which publishes Out
Out (magazine)
Out is a popular gay and lesbian fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any gay monthly publication in the United States. It carries itself in a similar editorial manner to Details, Esquire, and GQ. Out was published by PlanetOut Inc...
and HIV Plus magazines. Then president and chief executive of Liberation, James Franklin, said the deal would "move the print properties into the electronic arena." and added that the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
was popular with gay and lesbian readers because of the closet
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
factor. PlanetOut attempted in March 2000 to merge with LPI, but it was called off in March 2001.
Out Traveler, a magazine spin-off of Out launched in 2003.
In November 2005 LPI merged with Planet Out, which mainly has developed online properties to become the world's largest media company targeting the LGBT communities. LPI's "solid accounts list of fashion, retail and consumer packaged goods advertisers" was cited amongst the strong selling points. Criticism of the merger has centered on two aspects; that a consolidation
Consolidation (business)
Consolidation or amalgamation is the act of merging many things into one. In business, it often refers to the mergers and acquisitions of many smaller companies into much larger ones. In the context of financial accounting, consolidation refers to the aggregation of financial statements of a group...
of national media outlets of a minority community is unlikely to add diversity
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
of voices and that the publications were established and supported in an effort to secure human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
for gays and lesbians but now are instead delivering a market share
Market share
Market share is the percentage of a market accounted for by a specific entity. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 67 percent responded that they found the "dollar market share" metric very useful, while 61% found "unit market share" very useful.Marketers need to be able to...
to corporations.
In April, 2008, press reports said that the magazines published by LPI as well as the porn magazines published by Specialty Publications were to be sold by PlanetOut to Regent Releasing
Regent Releasing
Regent Releasing is a U.S. theatrical distribution company based in Los Angeles, California, under the umbrella of Regent Entertainment, which is owned by producers Paul Colichman and Stephen P. Jarchow....
, which owns here!, a cable television network catering to LGBT audiences.
A SEC filing
SEC filing
An SEC filing is a financial statement or other formal document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . Public companies, certain insiders, and broker-dealers are required to make regular SEC filings. Investors and financial professionals rely on these filings for information...
indicates that the agreement was completed in August 2008, with Here Media Inc. the new owner of LPI, Specialty Publications
Specialty Publications
Specialty Publications is an American publisher of gay erotic material.Specialty Publications was owned by LPI Media until LPI's publishing holdings were purchased in August 2008 by Regent Entertainment. Writers included Mickey Skee, J.C. Adams, Billy Masters, Leo Buck and Jeremy Spencer, among...
, and LPI's book company, Alyson Publications
Alyson Publications
Alyson Books, formerly known as Alyson Publications, is a book publishing house which specialises in LGBT fiction and non-fiction. Former publisher Don Weise described it as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature" and "the home of award-winning books in the areas of memoir,...
The Advocate
The AdvocateThe Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
, "the (LGBT) community's leading national news source since 1967." It is the oldest continuing gay publication in the United States with the website for the magazine containing approximately thirty percent of the print issue online and is updated daily. First published by Dick Michaels and Bill Rand, of the Los Angeles activist group PRIDE in Los Angeles in 1967 as The Los Angeles Advocate, it was renamed The Advocate in 1969 and distributed nationally. David Goodstein, an investment banker from San Francisco, bought the publication in 1974 instituting several changes to the publication fully transforming it into a national news magazine covering events important to the LGBT community, including the gay rights movement, art and culture. Goodstein's later editorials reflected his years as a participant in the LGBT community's fight for civil liberties. Soon after Goodstein's death 1985, the magazine changed hands through acquisitions, and was subsequently published by LPI Media, a division of PlanetOut Inc.
PlanetOut Inc.
PlanetOut Inc. was a public media and entertainment company exclusively targeting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender demographic...
Out
OutOut (magazine)
Out is a popular gay and lesbian fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any gay monthly publication in the United States. It carries itself in a similar editorial manner to Details, Esquire, and GQ. Out was published by PlanetOut Inc...
, a "popular lifestyle magazine that celebrates the spirit of gay culture, including fashion and style, trends, society, and the arts", was founded by Michael Goff in 1992. A key ingredient in Out's success in attracting mainstream and high-end advertisers who had never considered targeting the LGBT market was the magazine's offering of a safe environment in which no adult material or personal classifieds were published. By removing this barrier, advertisers were comfortable to utilize this new national print media vehicle to reach a marginalized audience and effectively showcase their products and services. With the advertising revenue Out was able to secure world-class writers and contributors such as writers Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Josh Kilmer-Purcell is an American writer. In 2006 Harper Perennial published I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir, a tragicomic account of Kilmer-Purcell's early days in New York City, living as an advertising art director by day and a drag queen named "Aquadisiac" by night...
, Dale Peck
Dale Peck
Dale Peck is an American novelist, critic, and columnist. His 2009 novel, Sprout, won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Children's/Young Adult literature, and was a finalist for the Stonewall Book Award in the Children's and Young Adult Literature category.-Biography:Peck was raised in Kansas,...
, Dan Savage
Dan Savage
Daniel Keenan "Dan" Savage is an American author, media pundit, journalist and newspaper editor. Savage writes the internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column Savage Love. Its tone is frank in its discussion of sexuality, often humorous, and hostile to social conservatives, as in...
, Mark Simpson
Mark Simpson (journalist)
Mark Simpson is an English journalist, writer, and broadcaster specialising in pop culture, media, and masculinity. He has been described by one critic as "the skinhead Oscar Wilde" Simpson is a frequent commentator on British television shows....
, Michael Joseph Gross
Michael Joseph Gross
Michael Joseph Gross is an American author and journalist.He has written extensively for publications such as The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and GQ. Gross is the author of the book Starstruck: When a Fan Gets Close to Fame, published in 2006 by Bloomsbury Publishing.Gross attended Williams...
, Normal Bob Smith, and photographers such as Ben Watts
Ben Watts
Benjamin Oliver Anthony "Ben" Watts is an English photographer based in New York, whose work has been seen in various international fashion magazines, such as Elle, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair and Condé Nast Traveller. He is the brother of actress Naomi Watts...
. In less than two years, Out circulation and scope of advertisers surpassed that of then forty-year-old The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
, then the only other national gay magazine.
HIV Plus
HIVHIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
Plus magazine is based in Los Angeles and was founded by Anne-christine D'Adesky
Anne-Christine d'Adesky
Anne-Christine d'Adesky is a journalist, author, documentary filmmaker, activist and human rights advocate.-Biography:Adesky has been a foreign correspondent in Haiti working as a stringer for newspapers including the San Francisco Examiner and later, the Village Voice. Here, she began writing...
in 1998. Instead of subscriptions the "national magazine [is] distributed at doctors' offices and organizations offering services for people with AIDS" including AIDS service organization
AIDS service organization
AIDS service organizations are community based organizations that provide community support. While their primary function is to provide needed services to individuals with HIV, they also provide support services for their families and friends as well as conduct prevention efforts...
s, HIV community-based groups, and physicians’ offices as well as some other qualifying groups and organizations Offering "the latest stories on research, economics, and treatment" HIV Plus provides "news that raises awareness of HIV-related cultural and policy developments in the United States and throughout the world" including issues of "cultural stereotypes about incarceration, drug use, and HIV".
Notable writers and contributors include photographer Steve Azzara, contributing fitness editor Sam Jensen Page
Sam Jensen Page
Samuel Jensen Page, formerly Samuel Francis, is a fitness journalist and trainer in Los Angeles, California. He legally changed his surname in August 2007 to that of his domestic partner, Bronson Page, via the Los Angeles Superior Court.-Early life and education:Born September 19, 1974, in Murray,...
, columnist LeRoy Whitfield
LeRoy Whitfield
LeRoy Whitfield was an American journalist who chronicled his personal experience with HIV infection and AIDS. Whitfield was diagnosed with HIV at nineteen in 1990, and wrote a column, "Native Tongue", run in HIV Plus magazine since May 2004...
whose "Native Tongue" column ran in HIV Plus magazine since May 2004 and was "one of the magazine's most popular features".
Alyson Publications
Alyson BooksAlyson Publications
Alyson Books, formerly known as Alyson Publications, is a book publishing house which specialises in LGBT fiction and non-fiction. Former publisher Don Weise described it as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature" and "the home of award-winning books in the areas of memoir,...
is a publisher founded in Boston, Massachusetts by Sasha Alyson which specializes in feminist and LGBT fiction and nonfiction. Notable books and authors published by Alyson include: Young, Gay and Proud
Young, Gay and Proud
Young, Gay and Proud is a book written for adolescents who are exploring a gay identity.It was edited by Sasha Alyson and Lynne Yamaguchi Fletcher. The book has been banned by different public libraries.This book is based on a person called Jack Woodhouse...
; the Dykes to Watch Out For
Dykes to Watch out For
Dykes to Watch Out For was a comic strip by Alison Bechdel. The strip, which ran from 1983 to 2008, was one of the earliest ongoing representations of lesbians in popular culture and has been called "as important to new generations of lesbians as landmark novels like Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit...
cartoon series, by Alison Bechdel
Alison Bechdel
Alison Bechdel is an American cartoonist. Originally best known for the long-running comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For, in 2006 she became a best-selling and critically acclaimed author with her graphic memoir Fun Home.-Early life:...
; Melting Point, Doing it for Daddy, Macho Sluts
Macho Sluts
Macho Sluts is a 1988 book of erotic short stories by Pat Califia, published by Alyson Publications.Exploring S/M fantasy concepts, it includes the stories "The Calyx of Isis" and "Jessie" along with six other shorter works, "The Finishing School", "The Hustler", "The Surprise Party", "The...
and Doc and Fluff by Patrick Califia
Patrick Califia
Patrick Califia , born 1954 near Corpus Christi, Texas is a writer of nonfiction essays about sexuality and of erotic fiction and poetry. Califia is a bisexual trans man.-Biography:...
; Latter Days
Latter Days
Latter Days is a 2003 American romantic drama film about a gay relationship between a closeted Mormon missionary and his openly gay neighbor. The film was written and directed by C. Jay Cox. It stars Steve Sandvoss as the missionary, Aaron, and Wes Ramsey as the neighbor, Christian. Joseph...
, novelization by T. Fabris for the 2003
2003 in film
The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
major motion picture of the same name; The Femme Mystique and Pillow Talk edited by Lesléa Newman
Lesléa Newman
Lesléa Newman, born in 1955 in Brooklyn, New York, is an American author and editor. She is Jewish, a feminist and openly lesbian.She has written and edited 57 books and anthologies. She has written about such topics as being a Jew, body image and eating disorders, lesbianism, gay parenting, and...
; Revolutionary Voices
Revolutionary Voices
Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology, edited by Amy Sonnie, is an anthology created by and for radical queer youth, committed specifically to youth of color, young women, transgender and bisexual youth, abled youth, and poor/working class youth.The anthology gave rise to the...
: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology; Love, Bourbon Street: Reflections of New Orleans winner 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Anthology; Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out
Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out
Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out, an anthology edited by Loraine Hutchins and Lani Ka'ahumanu, is one of the seminal books in the history of the modern bisexual rights movement...
edited by Loraine Hutchins
Loraine Hutchins
Loraine Hutchins is an American bisexual and feminist author, activist, and sex educator.She is the co-editor with Lani Ka'ahumanu of the anthology, Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out...
and Lani Ka'ahumanu
Lani Ka'ahumanu
Lani Ka'ahumanu is a bisexual and feminist writer and activist. She is openly bisexual and writes and speaks on sexuality issues frequently.She is the co-editor with Loraine Hutchins of Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out ....
and The Bisexual's Guide to the Universe, winner 2006 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual category.
Specialty Publications
LPI Media was the parent company of Specialty PublicationsSpecialty Publications
Specialty Publications is an American publisher of gay erotic material.Specialty Publications was owned by LPI Media until LPI's publishing holdings were purchased in August 2008 by Regent Entertainment. Writers included Mickey Skee, J.C. Adams, Billy Masters, Leo Buck and Jeremy Spencer, among...
, an American publisher of adult gay erotic and pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
publications. Their Men
Men (magazine)
Men is an American pornographic magazine, published by Specialty Publications based in Los Angeles and is the largest-selling magazine of that type in the country...
magazine (formerly Advocate Men) has been the top-selling gay male erotic magazine for over 25 years, and tends to portray men aged 25 to 40. Freshmen
Freshmen (magazine)
Freshmen is an American pornographic magazine published monthly by Specialty Publications, a division of LPI Media, and founded in 1991. The magazine is geared toward gay men, and features nude photos of men, 18–25 years old. Freshmen has featured young college-aged males since its inception in 1992...
is an American erotic magazine published monthly since 1991 and is geared toward gay and bisexual men features photos of men aged 18–30 years old.
Freshmen has long been the best-seller in its genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
and features top-line male porn models from Bel Ami
Bel Ami (adult film company)
Bel Ami is an gay pornographic film company with offices in Bratislava, Prague and Budapest. It was established in 1993 by filmmaker George Duroy, a Slovak native who took his pseudonym from the protagonist Georges Duroy in Guy de Maupassant's novel Bel Ami...
, Falcon
Falcon Entertainment
Falcon Entertainment , an United States company based in San Francisco, California, is one of the world's largest producers of gay pornography....
, and others; Freshmen specializes in young but not twinkish
Twink (gay slang)
"Twink" is a gay slang term describing a young or young-looking gay man with a slender, ectomorph build, little or no body hair, and no facial hair. In some societies, the term chick or chicken is preferred. The related term twinkle-toes, which implies that a man is effeminate, tends to be used in...
men, primarily 18 to 25 but some to age 30. Other items, such as calendars and playing cards, are also published using the same label.
"Freshman of the Year" contests are held with many fledgling porn stars going on to greater success including Sebastian Bonnet
Sebastian Bonnet
Sebastian Bonnet , also billed as Antoine Korda, is a Slovak actor who stars in gay pornographic films. His most prominent work was the Personal Trainers series produced for the Bel Ami company...
, Roman Heart, Dick McKay, Zack Randall, Marcus Allen
Timothy J. Boham
Timothy John Boham also known as Marcus Allen , is a former adult film star who was convicted of the first-degree shooting death of 43-year-old Denver businessman John Paul "J P" Kelso.-Porn career as "Marcus Allen":...
,, and Billy Brandt
Billy Brandt
Billy Brandt, born April 9, 1979, in Flint, Michigan, is an American adult film star who has worked primarily with Falcon Studios and Pacific Sun Entertainment at the beginning of his adult film career.-Biography:...
. Specialty Publications
Specialty Publications
Specialty Publications is an American publisher of gay erotic material.Specialty Publications was owned by LPI Media until LPI's publishing holdings were purchased in August 2008 by Regent Entertainment. Writers included Mickey Skee, J.C. Adams, Billy Masters, Leo Buck and Jeremy Spencer, among...
also produced Unzipped, and [2] making it one of the largest gay adult erotica web and video production companies in the world.