LPI Media Inc.
announced on Tuesday that corporate editorial director
Judy Wieder will be leaving the company on March 22. Long
the guiding force for the company's prominent LGBT
publications, Wieder joined The Advocate as its arts
and entertainment editor in 1993. In 1996 she became
the magazine's first woman editor in chief. She led
the title through 2002, when she was promoted to her
current position.
As corporate
editorial director, Wieder supervised the content of The
Advocate, Out magazine, The Out Traveler, HIV
Plus, and the book company Alyson as well as
related online publications. Under her leadership, LPI
Media partnered with Viacom's LGBT channel, Logo, to create
LPI-branded TV programming, including its The
Advocate Newsmagazine series, the second
installment of which will appear in April. She is also
executive vice president of the company, which was
purchased by PlanetOut Inc. in November.
Wieder will not
be replaced, said Bob Cohen, president of LPI Media.
"When a senior leader of Judy's scope and influence
leaves our company, there are many mixed emotions,"
Cohen wrote in an e-mail to the PlanetOut staff.
"Let's use this occasion to rededicate ourselves
to high standards of editorial independence, excellence, and
service to the LGBT community at all of our magazines
and Web sites. We thank Judy for her service and wish
her every success in her next endeavors."
Cohen, who joined
LPI when PlanetOut completed its purchase in November,
will now directly supervise editorial operations.
"Let me just
express, on behalf of CEO Lowell Selvin and all my
colleagues at LPI...and PlanetOut, our gratitude for
Judy's years of dedication, accomplishment, and
high standards," Cohen said in the companywide e-mail.
"The LPI Media businesses that we know today have been
enriched by Judy's guidance these past 13 years."
Before joining
The Advocate, Wieder was the founding
editor of Genre, the first glossy national
lifestyle magazine for gay men. She had a long career in
music and celebrity journalism and had also won a
Grammy as a songwriter. She lives in Venice, Calif.,
with her longtime partner, singer-songwriter Suzanne
Buirgy.
"Judy's talents
are amazing," said Bruce C. Steele, current editor in
chief of The Advocate, whom Wieder hired in
1999 as the magazine's executive editor. "Not only is she a
seasoned journalist with unfailing instincts about news of
all stripes, her leadership has been both inspired and
an inspiration. The magazine, the company, and
everyone who has worked with her have grown and learned
an incalculable amount from her guidance. She will be
missed."
"Now I know what
people mean when they say, 'I'm speechless.' I thought
they were just being lazy," Wieder told Advocate.com.
"But leaving the magazines I love and the people I've worked
side by side with for 13 years--there are no
words for how big this feels. Since I am not
retiring--just taking some long deep breaths for a
little while--I am fortunate in that I will be
able to let my head catch up to my heart. All I know
for sure is that I've been one lucky woman to have had this
amazing opportunity come to me at such a vibrant time in our
history."
