Gay weekly Washington Blade closes: Storied 40-year-old paper among sister publications abruptly shuttered

11/16/09 Washington Post:

The Washington Blade, the weekly newspaper that chronicled the coming-out of the capital's gay community, was born amid the idealism of 1960s street protests. Monday, the paper died, victim of the unforgiving realities of the nation's sagging newspaper industry.

I ordinarily don't comment on developments beyond the narrow scope of this site, but I find that I can't overlook the closure of the Washington Blade and its sister publications. Unfortunately, I don't know the newspaper's distinguished history. (Perhaps a reader can post a comment?) I know just that I have depended on its reporters for their exceptional thoroughness and attention to detail when covering recent D.C. Council hearings on the . Their obvious professionalism leaves a void that can't be filled - unless, as the Post reports, the Blade reporters form their own newspaper.

As a law librarian and blogger, I depend on local newspapers like the Blade for news I can find nowhere else, and for in-depth reporting mainstream media can't match. Their loss further impoverishes public debate about the most critical issues of our time.