Portland’s Just Out LGBT newspaper shuts doors

Just Out's Fall Arts Preview 2011 will be one of the magazine's final issues. (Screen shot of Just Out website)

With a short three-sentence statement on its website, Marty Davis, publisher of the 28-year-old Just Out newspaper, announced Portland’s LGBT newspaper would cease publication after its December issue.

“Effective December 26, 2011, Just Out newsmagazine, serving Portland’s LGBTQ community since 1983, is no longer in business,” the statement said. “Three years of recession have taken their toll. Please direct all inquiries to Marty Davis at marty@justout.com. Thank you for your many years of readership and support.”

Just Out was the region’s most recognized LGBT print publication. The paper was published free of charge twice monthly for years. Until recently the paper was distributed in many places around Oregon, but — according to the publication’s Wikipedia page — has over time reduced distribution points outside of Portland to one distribution point in Eugene, Ore., and one in Salem.

LGBT journalist Byron Beck claims to have gotten confirmation from publisher Davis that there will not be an online version of the publication in the future.

The demise of the most notable LGBT newspaper in the region is a significant development for a city that has generated several major LGBT news stories over the past several years.

Portland is the second-largest city in America to have elected an openly gay mayor. Sam Adams was elected in 2008 and survived two attempts at recall after a high-profile scandal.

The newspaper’s Wikipedia page say former contributors to the publication include “novelist Marc Acito, Pink Martini pianist Thomas Lauderdale and prize-winning reporter Peter Zuckerman.”

Just Out’s final issue, a “year in review issue,” hit new stands on Dec. 9. Just Out typically published 24 issues a year.