Milestones should be something that you don’t ever plan for – they are something that just happen. They are a result of when you dedicate yourself to a task at hand and produce the best that you possibly can. Of course you’ll make the occasional mistake, but if you stick at something long enough you’ll achieve the most remarkable milestones.
OUTinPerth, Western Australia’s only lesbian and gay community newspaper, has hit one such milestone. This is the 100th issue of OUTinPerth, which is no mean feat. Trust us…! But it’s an interesting process that has brought this publication to this point since it’s inception on June 6th, 2002, when the very first issue of OUTinPerth hit the streets of this fair city.
In order to understand that complexity and importance of such a publication we’ve gone right back to the roots of it all and took time out with the founder and original editor Paul Bluett. He was there when OUTinPerth finally emerged after metamorphosing through various forms, names and guises.
‘It’s something that’s on the street, something to be in people’s faces,’ Bluett said of why he carried the torch of gay media in WA across to its current form. This is the public vision of it –printing a physical newspaper to me was a really important thing to have sitting out in pubs, clubs, cafes.
‘Not just the gay venues; we had them and we’ve got now hundreds of places where we distribute it, and it’s just a matter of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer people having ourselves out in the street…saying that it’s not necessarily any different but we’re here too. And that’s why, for me, printing a physical thing has been so important.’
The first issue of the then fortnightly OUTinPerth featured Kate Monroe on the cover. Inside, Gillette Venus was enjoying her halcyon days of being the paper’s gossip columnist. It was the same era as when Sheer Queer was on RTR FM, a time when the majority of pages within the paper were a stark black and white.
‘The beginning issues of OUTinPerth are all black and white pretty much except for the covers, unless the client was willing to pay a huge amount for colour – and normally Connections often did; they shared it with other advertisers. But ultimately we could only do one page or two pages.
‘It was really expensive whereas not long after that, within a year, we could almost do colour on every page, and you could do the whole paper in colour for the same cost it used to be to do two pages. So that was a good change, because it really made it much more visual.’
Since its first issue, OUTinPerth has covered such topics as reviews and changes to the age of consent, the recent widespread reform of federal legislation, parenting has become even more prominent within the community, both Connections and The Court Hotel have undergone major renovations, plus there have been many Pride AGMs including those witnessing the near collapse of Pride itself.
‘I think it’s doing what it needs to, in terms of serving the community, and that’s the only point of having it, quite frankly,’ Bluett said of the relevance of OUTinPerth. ‘It could be an advertising brochure if it doesn’t serve the community. I really like the fact that OUTinPerth – and all the papers that I’ve been involved in – that we had a really strong… not rule against, but dislike of pure advertorials that just spout about the product.
‘It’s how you present it and who controls that content that changes its intent, and I really like that the paper still maintains that editorial independence on its content. So for me that’s really important and that’ll carry it through. I’m glad the website is so huge, because I could never do that, you know; I had a horrible little two page thing that just had some basic contact stuff on it.
‘I’m glad that it’s still on the street; more physical copies are printed now than there was before, and that’s great, and it’s more widely available. It’s great that it goes out to Woop Woop, you know; some of the delivery runs go down past Murdoch and all through Freo, and we never used to have papers out there. So the reach of the paper is great, and I think there’s lots of scope within that.’
On Pride Night Saturday October 28, 2006, at 6pm, Paul Bluett sold OUTinPerth to current publisher Alex Maltby. Maltby, along with editor Zoe Carter, have brought OUTinPerth into a new era, one that has seen the paper expand significantly in its coverage.
The constant forward progression of the paper has seen OUTinPerth has been formally recognised for its work, winning two prominent community awards. The first was WA AIDS Council’s 2008 Media Award, the second Pride’s first ever Glammy for ‘Building Bridges Between or Within Communities’.
‘OUTinPerth brings the community together, giving it a voice and it’s an important place for information to reach the community, including important information on HIV prevention, health issues, the functionality of community groups,’ Maltby explained. ‘It’s also an avenue of expression, one that is coming broader and broader. Because we are firmly entrenched in the community we can see where community groups can work together in a way that is unique.
‘I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Paul Bluett for everything that he has done over the last 20 years,’ Maltby concluded. ‘Without him, this paper wouldn’t exist and i feel honoured that he entrusted it to me. Paul is one of the cornerstones of our community.’
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