Pink folds after going into red

Britain’s only gay newspaper has closed after racking up losses of up to £400,000 a year, writes Dominic Ponsford.

The owners of the Pink Paper have blamed increased competition for advertising and the greater prevalence of gay issues in the mainstream press for the closure.

The paper was founded in 1987 and 40,000 copies a week were distributed free to pubs and clubs. Three journalists have lost their jobs. The closure was not mentioned in the last edition on Thursday.

According to the owners, the paper has been subsidised for many years by its sister title, the profitable listings and entertainment weekly, Boyz, launched in 1991.

General manager David Bridle said: “Advertising has become increasingly difficult to get and it’s got to the stage where subsidising the Pink Paper was putting the whole company at risk.

“I think the gay world’s moved on from the Pink Paper. When I was editing the Pink Paper eight years ago it was very rare that gay stories would get coverage in the nationals. These days every single paper covers gay issues very strongly – it’s quite difficult for us, as a weekly, to compete with that. Virtually every national newspaper has a gay journalist doing gay stories in one way or another.”