40 Years of Gay Times: How the Publisher Continues to Grow

The year was 1984. Musicians like Queen and '80s fashion were all about being free and embracing individuality, but those in LGBTQ+ communities faced scrutiny when wanting to live their truth. One might say starting an LGBTQ+ publication like Gay Times in that atmosphere was risky and maybe even dangerous, but founder Chris Graham-Bell knew that having a space for gay and bisexual men in London at the time was necessary and needed. Although Graham-Bell was turned down for a business loan because he was gay, he still found a way to provide a safe space for LGBTQ+ voices. Graham-Bell went on to prosper with businesses like Zipperstore in Camden and magazines Him, Zipper and Vulcan. In 1994, Diva magazine was founded, and a merger in 1999 created Millivres Prowler Group—the largest gay-owned multimedia publishing business in Europe. In 2013, Graham-Bell retired as chairman after a management buyout. Due to trading pressures, various businesses including Gay Times Magazine moved to new ownership. Fast forward to 2024: Gay Times reaches more than 72.9 million people globally, with plans for continued growth in North America and beyond. The publication doesn't just appeal to LGBTQ+ readers: According to WPP Beyond the Rainbow, 85% of non-LGBTQ+ 18-24-year-olds actively seek out queer media, proving its universal appeal. LGBTQ+ Culture Challenges Brands to Set New Goals Beyond Profit For any company to survive as long as Gay Times has, it must continue to evolve. What has helped Gay Times reach its readership is having team members in the countries it covers who are able to give an even deeper perspective than those in its London home base. Nowadays, people prefer to support businesses and companies that give back and stand for something as well. One example of how Gay Times goes beyond its pages is the GT Amplifund, a partnership between Gay Times and GiveOut that supports the global movement to advance LGBTQ+ rights by providing vital resources and support. Outside of financial help, GT Amplifund has forged strategic partnerships with many of the participating organizations offering structural support, ensuring the voice and resources Gay Times has as a business can still be effective in locations where the company doesn't operate. Gay Times reaches more than 72.9 million people globally. Looking ahead, CEO Tag Warner is ready to continue the publisher's legacy and make an even bigger impact in the next 40 years through partnerships with brands like Google and Calvin Klein, original content like Snatched!, and events like GT Honours that celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. ADWEEK spoke with Warner about the company's next act, the formula for staying relevant and why LGBTQ+ publishers matter. ADWEEK: How would you describe Gay Times' legacy in one word? Warner: I would like to say impactful. I feel like as a company we've had significant impact within our community and for our community over the four decades that we've been around in so many different areas. Whether that's community activism, politics, raising voices, celebrating queer excellence, celebrating queer creativity, breaking down barriers for queer people, and bridge-building between queer people and the rest of the world. That impact is something that has been part of the company for a really long time. And that's always personified when I get to meet people who have read Gay Times for 30 or 40 years. They always have a story. They always will show and tell you about something that Gay Times did or said or was involved in the '80s or '90s. And you can test and measure that impact by the way people respond to you. If it wasn't impactful, people just wouldn't remember it—it wouldn't mean something to them. Why Brands Should Foster Long-Term Relationships With the LGBTQ+ Community With so many publishers folding and LGTBQ+ rights being under attack on a global scale, is Gay Times more relevant than ever? There's a need, and there always will be a need, for an organization like Gay Times, and that's probably why we've managed to maintain that relevancy the whole time. Because we know that progress isn't linear. This isn't a straight line to full acceptance and celebration in the world. We feel we're taking a step forward, and sometimes two steps back. And that's really relevant right now, especially as our U.S. presence grows and just thinking about how the queer experience in the U.S. is under attack in a way that it wasn't in the last few years. That increases the need for good quality queer media that is all about actually celebrating the power in queer people and showing the rest of the world and ourselves all the brilliant sides of us, because otherwise the prevailing view from mainstream media or other titles nearly always focus on the negative. It's so important that we exist so that we can give queer people a reflection of themselves, which is all the great things about themselves, whilst also fighting and being a part of that progress and change. Within the last 10 years, we're starting to see more inclusive discussions like the non-binary and trans experience. Would you agree? The biggest and most obvious shift is a more inclusive approach when it comes to identity. The approach for many, many years was absolutely around the cisgender experience, predominantly the male cisgender experience. And opening it up to our trans siblings, non-binary siblings, has been a massively important part of Gay Times history. And I'm really proud to have been part of that. But also, I would say the other thing that's shifted is this insular view and more externalized view. Realizing that our culture and our rights and who we are is so interconnected within the fabric of our wider society, but also the world at large. What contributes to keeping Gay Times relevant? The thing that I've really tried to do is build a company that's more around a mindset of being incredibly open, inquisitive and not defensive about things. And ultimately, to be able to understand that the world is very complex, and two things can exist at the same time that might feel like they're at odds with each other. That mindset allows you to be open, and it allows people to speak to you and share things with you that maybe if you are more discerning or more closed off, that they wouldn't share with you. As Marketers Fumble Attempts at Allyship, Edelman’s LGBTQ+ Taskforce Is Making Money Ultimately, when we look at some of the media companies that are struggling now, I know people that are in those leadership positions at those companies. They definitely can carry a sense of superiority at times, they kind of feel like they're better than the consumer or better than their audience or better than the world at large. That is a shame because it really shuts you off from connecting with people about what they really care about and what matters to them. Having that open and inquisitive mindset is really important for me, and I try to instill that within our culture as a company, and that's allowed us to maintain relevancy. When something happens in our community that is different or unexpected, instead of judging it, we're open to it. We allow that to happen. And then we're part of that change in that movement rather than trying to keep things as is. I think about how sometimes fashion media or fashion brands even can lose relevancy. It's because they have that close view they've been so designing or potentially feeling above it, that actually they lose touch with that community quite quickly. Nowadays, that pace is quicker because consumers are moving on quicker, and the community is moving so much more quickly. Many media companies are having a hard time maintaining advertisers. For advertisers that have been with Gay Times for many years, what has made them stick around? The longtime supporters and partners of Gay Times know that you can work with us and have a brilliant quality of output. It will be incredibly thorough and authentic. We're really careful about all of those things that we really should be well versed in now, not just LGBTQ+ people being featured but behind the camera, the producers, the people who are supporting and helping with that work. It's important that it goes through the whole community, but also saying they stay with us because they know that we can tell amazing stories and connect with our audience in an organic way. That also means something to the brand, and that's the thing that we do differently. Of course we have advertisers where it's maybe something a little bit more standard, but a lot of people work with us in this really in-depth way where we're thinking about stories that mean something to the brand and stories that mean something to our community. A lot of the time they see the fact that as a brand, although we've been around for a long time, there is something that feels really constantly fresh and exciting about Gay Times.

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40 Years of Gay Times: CEO Tag Warner on Expanding Its Audience and Impact

He reflects on the publisher's legacy and its future

Colin Daniels

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Colin Daniels