Business Profile GSociety Media Venture Unifies and Markets Gay Life

(Feature starts on the Backpage) And things have taken off. In the past A short time into the new venture, Martin year, GayWired.com’s page views have risen decided he needed someone to lead the 300 percent and its membership 160 percent. company in a new direction, to be more LesbiaNation’s page views have increased cutting edge and take more chances, he says. by 1,400 percent and its membership has That resulted in the hiring of Yates, who has grown by 211 percent. What started as a small 30 years of experience in television, radio operation in one office in Miami today has and marketing. matured into a company of about 70 people “I needed a visionary, someone who had with 3,000-square-feet of office space in done this before,” Martin said. “He told me Miami and 11,000-square-feet of office and that we needed to go in a different direction production space in Hollywood. and be a media company.” Not bad for a three-year-old company GSociety scored a major coup with in the age of piles of ruined dot-com Viacom, the parent company of Showtime, companies. which produces the hit show “Queer as Folk”. Martin previously was in the financial Viacom, which calls the show its most field before starting GSociety. Though he has successful series ever, has ordered 18 new Dan Dawson. try to be all things to all people.” been out to his parents and close friends for episodes of the American version of the “I have done a lot of promos in the past Hence the different channels: 12 years, the Arkansas native made a splash British creation. year, and none have gotten people as GayWired.com for news and entertainment; three years ago when he came out to the world To publicize the partnership, GSociety interested as this tour has, and we haven’t LesbiaNation.com specifically for gay on national television while a guest on the is hitting the road with the cast of “Queer as really even advertised this,” Dawson says. women; Dance1.net for the young, urban, gay Cable News Network’s financial show Folk” for its “Beyond Babylon Tour” — after A lot of that successs can be traced to market interested in the latest dance music; “Squawk Box”. His continued involvement the bar in which much of the action is set — marketing and understanding the growing and GHighway.com and QTMagazine.com in gay issues culminated with the idea for with scheduled Florida stops in Pensacola diversity of the gay and lesbian consumer, for travel guides and information. the new company. May 25-29 and in Orlando for Gay Days Dawson says. “With these different sites, we’re able “I just felt that this would be a great Disney May 29-June 4. The tour will also “Gay people are so diverse,” he says. to define brands that appeal to the specific project for me to be involved with,” Martin visit Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Cleveland, “You have those who are into sports, those type of peopel that are at that website,” says. “I wanted a job that was more entrenched San Jose, San Diego and Long Beach, Cal., who are into dance, those who are into all Dawson says. “We’re able to fill niches in the gay community and to be involved with according to GSociety Marketing Director kinds of different things. We’re not going to within this huge niche.” a new area of the business world.”

Personality Profile Express In-Depth: Profiling GSociety’s CEO, Paul Yates By Gregg Lasky Paul Yates has leapt over at least a information programming to 250 and I’m black, but I’m still a few major hurdles on his way to being stations nationally. Before that, Yates businessman.” a success, but don’t tell him that. worked for eight years in the television He has served on the Boards of “I never felt there were any strikes industry. He went from running Directors of The Whitman-Walker against me,” Yates says. stations, working in labor relations Foundation in Washington, D.C., which But Yates, who is black and gay, and human resources, to managing provides health services to the gay and has succeeded in all aspects of the celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Ed lesbian community; Us Helping Us, also in business world, which so often is white Bradley and Ted Koppel. Washington, D.C., which serves gay African and straight. Yates, who was born in Quebec Americans; and the National Minority AIDS “I have a brother and two sisters City, and grew up in Pennsylvania and Council, a nationwide healthcare provider. and come from a great family,” the 54- New England, credits his family for He has been a fundraiser for and year-old GSociety president says. “We supporting him when he came out in contributor to the Human Rights Campaign, were raised in such a way as to believe his early twenties. That candor about Lambda Legal Defense Fund and National that we could accomplish anything we his orientation also stretched to his Gay and Lesbian Task Force, among others. wanted.” professional life. In addition, he has participated in gay pride Yates came to GSociety with a “I was up for a job at events in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, New strong pedigree in marketing and Westinghouse and was meeting with York City, Miami and Atlanta as well as the management, having formed one such the chairman of the board and I told March on Washington and Stonewall 25. company in 1996 and having run one him, ‘There’s something I need to tell Yates has a Bachelor of Science degree beginning in 1988. you...I am a gay man and I have a in Education from the University of Paul Yates and cast of “Queer as Folk” “I’m a strong believer that lover.” His employer was unfazed. Pennsylvania, a Master’s in Psychology from entertainment is really very central to our go to Paris to be entertained. Entertainment Yates got the job. the University of Pittsburgh, and a PhD. in Paul Yates community,” the self-effacing Yates says. is always in vogue.” “I just didn’t want anyone in the psychology from Harvard University. Earlier “When we’re happy, we want to be Previously, Yates had spent 15 years in company thinking they could blackmail me in his career, Yates worked as an industrial entertained. When we’re sad, we want to be the broadcasting industry, overseeing about my personal life,” Yates says. “Who I psychologist and a schoolteacher. He is a entertained. If we have a lot of money, we companies that provided news and am is who I am. I’m a business man, and I’m gay, busy man, with a mission....

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