Q-Notes
Encyclopedia
Q-Notes is a lesbian
, gay
, bisexual
and transgender
(LGBT
) newspaper serving North Carolina
and South Carolina
. It is based in Charlotte, N.C.. Published every other week, it has a circulation of 11,000 print copies and is the largest print publication serving the LGBT
community in the American Southeast. The paper was originally started in 1983 as the monthly newsletter of Queen City Quordinators, a Charlotte LGBT organization. In 1986, it began publishing as a monthly tabloid and merged with the Raleigh, N.C.
LGBT newspaper The Front Page in 2006.
and in Columbia
, South Carolina
and by subscription. The paper covers news, politics, opinion, entertainment, art, lifestyle and other topics. It is the largest LGBT
news publication in the Carolinas, with reach to parts of Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia. It is the largest LGBT print news publication in the Southeast.
; Columbia
; Durham
; Greensboro; Greenville
; Raleigh
; Wilmington
, Winston-Salem and more. The paper also has distribution points and subscribers in Florida
, Georgia
, New Jersey
, New York
, Tennessee
, Washington, D.C.
and West Virginia
.
The newspaper is also published online at www.q-notes.com, with daily news updates, event calendars and community resource listings.
The older version of the paper's website had been a simple and static HTML
design, requiring hours of behind-the-scenes construction for each bi-weekly issue.
In January 2010, the newspaper unveiled a newly redesigned website at goqnotes.com
and Barack Obama
. The third was with Clinton aide Mark Walsh
. Obama's interview also included comments from aide Eric Stern
. Chris Crain, former editor of The Washington Blade
criticized Q-Notes coverage as it did not include information that the interviews had been conducted via email. Q-Notes later edited their Q&As including notations that the interviews were conducted via email.
http://www.presspassq.com/detail.cfm?id=85
Despite changes in the newspaper's circulation strategies, the closure of Window Media
's Southern Voice and South Florida Blade on November 16, 2009 made the Carolinas newspaper the largest LGBT print news publication in the Southeast.
Editor Matt Comer - Oversees all editorial decisions, writes editorial material, oversees production and New Media
/website operations. Comer was hired October 1, 2007, at the age of 21. He is the youngest person to ever hold the position at the paper.
Associate Editor David Stout - Oversees music, film and lifestyles materials. Assists in making editorial decisions. Stout was hired as editor in the early 1990s, at the age of 22. At that time, Stout was the youngest-ever editor at the paper.
Production Director/Special Assignments Writer Lainey Millen - Oversees physical layout of the paper, graphic design and writes occasionally for special projects, North Carolina news briefs and in-depth reports.
Occasionally, interns also assist the paper in its various functions.
The paper has several regularly contributing freelance writers and columnists.
Contributing news writers and columnists from the Carolinas have included Ryan Wilson, president of the S.C. Pride Movement; Jeff Olson, Samantha Korb, Robbi Cohn, a transgender activist; Gareth Fenley, a former CNN journalist living in Columbia
and others.
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...
, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, bisexual
Bisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
and 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....
(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...
) newspaper serving North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
. It is based in Charlotte, N.C.. Published every other week, it has a circulation of 11,000 print copies and is the largest print publication serving the 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...
community in the American Southeast. The paper was originally started in 1983 as the monthly newsletter of Queen City Quordinators, a Charlotte LGBT organization. In 1986, it began publishing as a monthly tabloid and merged with the Raleigh, N.C.
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
LGBT newspaper The Front Page in 2006.
General information
Q-Notes is published every other week on Saturdays, with a print circulation of approximately 11,000. It is distributed in all major cities in North CarolinaNorth Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and in Columbia
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
and by subscription. The paper covers news, politics, opinion, entertainment, art, lifestyle and other topics. It is the largest 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...
news publication in the Carolinas, with reach to parts of Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia. It is the largest LGBT print news publication in the Southeast.
Origins
Q-Notes was originally started in 1983 as a monthly newsletter, named Queen City Notes, printed on 8.5x11 paper and distributed by the now defunct Queen City Quordinators, a local non-profit LGBT community organization. The newsletter was published for two years and grew to 12 pages an issue with paid advertising. It ceased publication due to lack of volunteer manpower. In 1986 Q-Notes was reborn as a monthly print newspaper published by Queen City Quordinators and later under the auspices of C.A.N. (Charlotte Advocacy Network) Inc., a for-profit corporation. The first issue of the revised newspaper was distributed in June 1986. Don King was hired part-time as the paper's first editor. QCQ President Jim Yarbrough, Dean Gaskey, Joel Smith and Robert Sheets kept the publication operating until it was bought by Yarbrough in December 1989. In 1991, Yarbrough left another job to take over operation of the publication full-time. Jim Yarbrough, the owner of Pride Publishing and Typesetting, Inc., bought the publication from C.A.N. Inc. in December 1989. In 1996, Q-Notes began distributing every other week.Distribution
The paper is distributed in major cities and small-to-medium sized cities and towns in the Carolinas including Charlotte, N.C., where the paper is based; Asheville, Chapel HillChapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
; Columbia
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
; Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
; Greensboro; Greenville
Greenville, South Carolina
-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...
; Raleigh
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
; Wilmington
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
, Winston-Salem and more. The paper also has distribution points and subscribers in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
.
The newspaper is also published online at www.q-notes.com, with daily news updates, event calendars and community resource listings.
Merger with The Front Page
On May 12, 2006, Q-Notes merged with the Raleigh, N.C., based The Front Page, a Raleigh, N.C. LGBT newspaper founded in 1979.Online Presence
On April 17, 2008, Q-Notes debuted its new website at www.q-notes.com. The new incarnation of the almost decade-old website featured daily news updates and staff blogs and allowed reader comments to be posted to any story. The site is using a modified version of the WordPress blogging platform as a content management systemThe older version of the paper's website had been a simple and static HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
design, requiring hours of behind-the-scenes construction for each bi-weekly issue.
In January 2010, the newspaper unveiled a newly redesigned website at goqnotes.com
2008 Democratic Presidential Primary
On April 30, 2008, seven days prior to the May 6, 2008, North Carolina primary, Q-Notes published online three interviews. Two were with Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham ClintonHillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
and Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
. The third was with Clinton aide Mark Walsh
Mark Walsh
Mark Walsh is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist.Walsh graduated from Union College in 1976. Walsh started his career as a television newscaster at a West Virginia CBS affiliate. He held this position for two years before leaving to pursue an MBA at the Harvard...
. Obama's interview also included comments from aide Eric Stern
Eric Stern
Eric Stern is the Director of Operations for the Career Development Office at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law . Before re-locating to California, Stern worked at The George Washington School of Law. He is the former Executive Director of the National Stonewall Democrats. Eric...
. Chris Crain, former editor of The Washington Blade
The Washington Blade
The Washington Blade is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender newspaper in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The Blade is the oldest LGBT newspaper in the United States and second largest by circulation, behind Gay City News of New York City...
criticized Q-Notes coverage as it did not include information that the interviews had been conducted via email. Q-Notes later edited their Q&As including notations that the interviews were conducted via email.
http://www.presspassq.com/detail.cfm?id=85
Physical Changes
For the July 26, 2008, issue the Q-Notes staff changed the traditional quarter fold of the newspaper to a flat layout, reflecting the layout more typical of an average, weekly tabloid newspaper or news-magazine. The traditional two sections of the newspaper, the front, more news-oriented section and the back, arts and entertainment section, were rolled into a single stitched section. In late 2008, the paper began using full, front page images on the front cover rather than have story text in a traditional newspaper layout.Distribution changes, Growth
In October 2009, Q-Notes announced it would stop distribution of its print edition to most regions in South Carolina. In a letter from publisher Jim Yarbrough, the newspaper said it would concentrate most South Carolina print copies in the state capital of Columbia. The paper continues to distribute to some community organizations and businesses in Greenville and Myrtle Beach.Despite changes in the newspaper's circulation strategies, the closure of Window Media
Window Media
Window Media was a gay press publishing holding company that acquired and operated gay and lesbian newspapers and magazines in the 2000s. It is not to be confused with Windows Media...
's Southern Voice and South Florida Blade on November 16, 2009 made the Carolinas newspaper the largest LGBT print news publication in the Southeast.
New Editorial Direction
In January 2009, Q-Notes began rebranding its print edition and online presence. A new layout for the print edition accompanied an online redesign and new editorial strategy. Editor Matt Comer wrote, "With our change in aesthetics comes a change in our editorial direction. Our bi-weekly print issues will be more future-oriented and contain less reporting of events past, while goqnotes.com takes up a more robust daily presence with online only reporting of Carolinas, national and international events and news...In an effort to maintain our new, robust website and editorial direction, qnotes will be implementing a sort of “web first” model. Stories slated to appear in our print editions will be published as they are completed, or as a set of stories in the day or two after we dispatch our content to our printer. No more waiting the painfully slow and long five days between press time and street date."Staff
Publisher Jim Yarbrough - Oversees daily operation of all aspects of the newspaper, from financial matters to employment and occasional editorial decisions.Editor Matt Comer - Oversees all editorial decisions, writes editorial material, oversees production and New Media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
/website operations. Comer was hired October 1, 2007, at the age of 21. He is the youngest person to ever hold the position at the paper.
Associate Editor David Stout - Oversees music, film and lifestyles materials. Assists in making editorial decisions. Stout was hired as editor in the early 1990s, at the age of 22. At that time, Stout was the youngest-ever editor at the paper.
Production Director/Special Assignments Writer Lainey Millen - Oversees physical layout of the paper, graphic design and writes occasionally for special projects, North Carolina news briefs and in-depth reports.
Occasionally, interns also assist the paper in its various functions.
The paper has several regularly contributing freelance writers and columnists.
Contributing news writers and columnists from the Carolinas have included Ryan Wilson, president of the S.C. Pride Movement; Jeff Olson, Samantha Korb, Robbi Cohn, a transgender activist; Gareth Fenley, a former CNN journalist living in Columbia
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
and others.