NY Blade gets the ax

The New York Blade, a 22,000-circ gay and lesbian paper, has suspended publication.

The Blade, sister title to the New England Blade — which shuttered its print edition in October 2008 — and HX Magazine, was distributed for free around New York City on a weekly and bi-weekly schedule, depending on time of year. The magazine just published its gay pride issue on June 26, coinciding with New York's gay pride parade on June 28. Its next issue was scheduled for July 10. Tightened budgets and loss of a main product in the just-sold HX Magazine were blamed for the closing.

“Our main product here was HX Magazine, which was sold [on Friday], and the Blade and our other businesses were really auxiliary to that,” explained Matthew Blank, CEO of Blade parent company HX Media LLC. “We suspended publication of the Blade while we figure out what to do next.”

He added that the company has not yet decided if the publication will continue to live online or which, if any, products the company will focus on growing in the future.

“There is the possibility that all lines of business will be sold to other companies and the company will cease to exist,” he said. “We're negotiating with other people who are interested in the business, and we should know more in the next few weeks.”

The HX Magazine Web site continues to operate in full force. Blank said he could not divulge any details of the sale because the unnamed buyers wanted to make their own announcement.