Feature
 Our First Year
An Interview With Publisher Michael Aaron
JoSelle Vanderhooft: So, Michael, QSaltLake turns one this week. How did this paper come about?
Michael Aaron: When the economy tanked a few years ago and I lost my very lucrative advertising job, I decided I wanted to do something more fulfilling with my life. I had published Triangle Magazine and Gay Community Reporter back in the ’80s and I decided I wanted to get back into the publishing world. I contacted Todd at the Pillar and offered to get a website going for them, but it was obvious that wasn’t the direction he wanted to go. I was concerned that, as legislation and Amendment 3 were being thrown at the gay community, the community needed to be made aware and educated about the issues. Pillar had turned into more of a community newsletter ... I love Todd and the work he has done with the newspaper for as long as he has, but the community needed something more educational, more professional, more timely.
So part of our mission was to really give people fodder for arguments that they would give against things like constitutional marriage amendments and other pieces of legislation that would come out. We thought it was important to put that information out and we do that through the form of news and editorial because a lot of that information isn’t available anywhere else. That drove our decision to go biweekly instead of monthly as all other gay publications had been in this state.
We also thought it was important that the events happening in the gay community be more advertised than they were, so we developed an Arts & Entertainment section. We feel it helps develop the community as a whole.
JV: How did you meet up with your business partner, Steven Peterson?
MA: I’ve known Steve for many years. I used to be president of Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats. We hit it off when he became involved in that several years ago. I was very aware of his role in Little Lavender Book and as I was putting out feelers for the paper he suggested that I sit down and talk to him about it. He had also been considering doing a newspaper as well. It was a good match because Steve had a ready-made infrastructure and I had everything we needed to put a newspaper together, because I’d published before and I’m a designer. At the same time I rekindled a friendship with Brandon Burt and he came on as editor and the rest just happened from there.
JV: When did you start planning to put the paper out?
MA: I started putting out feelers in December 2003 and really started working on it heavily in January. I met with Steve then, and we had basically made the agreements and set up a corporation and office by mid-February 2004. We published in April.
JV: That’s lightning-speed! Did you set it up so quickly because of Amendment 3?
MA: Absolutely. We saw the issue heating up quickly and wanted to jump in front of it. I also wanted to have our official launch a few issues before Pride Day, so we went back three issues from pride and said, ok this is our date. And that was April 29.
JV: Did you have the layout for the paper as it stands now in mind, or did your ideas change?
MA: Actually, the layout of the paper is inspired by the San Jose Metro. They are an alternative weekly paper that I just fell in love with when I lived there a decade ago. I still kept up with them, and I really liked their layout and their flow. A lot of what we’re doing is because of what they did. JV: I do know there have been positive responses to the Metro, including praise from the heir to the Tribune Empire and acknowledgement by local columnists like Rolly and Wells, who have commented on some stories we’ve run in the past. What have been some other responses the paper has received?
MA: Mostly when people find out I’m the publisher, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been thanked by people for doing something that was very much needed in this community. We’ve had basically no negative responses from anybody. I was expecting that we’d get some letters and phone calls bashing us but we haven’t had any of that. We made a conscious choice not to put taglines defining what the paper is on the cover. We wanted to be the newspaper for the gay and lesbian community rather than the “gay and lesbian newspaper.” I know it’s a fairly subtle difference, but we left it up to the reader to decide what we were and whether they liked us.
The response from the community, though, has been overwhelming. Driving down the road in my Metro logo-emblazoned Jeep, people will honk and wave. Some even wave their issue of the paper at me. Two guys on bicycles raced for three blocks to catch up with me, bells a-ringing. I pulled over and they just wanted to say thanks for ‘such a great paper.’ So I think I have succeeded in my efforts to have a ‘more fulfilling job.’
JV: It sounds like you’ve had a fairly smooth start-up. Have you faced major challenges?
MA: The biggest challenge was to actually pay everybody. When we first started this newspaper, rule number one was the writers and photographers get paid. Rule number two was the editor gets paid. Rule number three was the publisher gets paid. We’re just about to get ready for rule number three! (laughs)
We did go through some difficult financial times, like any startup would, where we sent the paper to the press and we didn’t know if they would print it. Our press has been so great to work with—they are nice people and print such great quality. People are constantly putting us side-by-side with other publications and gushing about how much better Metro looks. We hit a point several months in where we had fallen behind on our print bill. I think they expected us to pull to another printer and leave them with the bill, but we stuck with them as they had done with us and we are finally up to date with them. We wanted a long-term relationship, not a quick fix that screws someone.
We can’t thank our advertisers enough for their help here. They believed in us right up front and have stuck with us. We’ve also had some saviors who got us through.
We’ve been very happy with the response in the community on so many different levels. That’s why the paper is still in publication.
It was also challenging trying to find our legs, to understand what our strengths were. We had wanted to do absolutely everything and to put on every activity the gay community would want to go to on a much bigger and grander scale than every before. But understanding our strengths and focusing on those took a while to figure out. What we are good at is getting the word out to gay and lesbian Utah. All of the other things are really just side notes. We’ve gotten much better at focusing on our strengths and our lives are infinitely more sane. We’re extremely happy about the numerous events we’ve been able to sponsor and get the word out about because we want to do that for the community. JV: Ok. It’s story time! Tell me the funniest story that’s happened on the Metro.
MA: Oh dear. Well, I can’t think of one off hand, but we do have a lot of fun around the office. It’s great working in such a gay space. The most recent joke here is that we’ve put out 26 on-time issues—more than any other gay publication in Utah, ever. Wait ... don’t print that.
JV: Thanks a lot, Michael.
MA: Thank you. Now get back
to work.
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