I am giving our hard working editor Randy Hope the week off from writing his weekly editorial to our loyal readers, so that I can let you get to know me just a little bit better.

There is no question that newspapers are changing. Everything is changing for that matter!

As I left the 20th annual AIDS Walk at Balboa Park last Sunday, I looked around to see a mostly 20-something crowd of heterosexuals supporting a cause that some gays and lesbians were afraid to be associated with early in the epidemic.

The faces of our local leaders, activists, students, businesses and our every day heroes are changing.

Myspace is dead. Facebook is in. Texting is what voicemail use to be. People now tweet, read blogs, log on to their favorite news websites while watching the news simultaneously. At a Sunday brunch, we show our friends the latest hysterical clip on YouTube, while our other friends search for top stories on Digg or update their blogs on their smartphone. Our furniture now accommodates flat screen TVs and laptops.

You almost start to wonder what will come next?

That being said, the Gay & Lesbian Times is adapting to the change of social media relations. We know that the ways people receive their local, national and global news has undoubtedly changed, and there are many new niches in media to consider and explore.

I know that when I worked at the Windy City Times in Chicago years ago, we knew that eventually there would be a supplement to the weekly newspaper. At that time, I worked in the newspaper’s fashion department, and online video and live coverage of fashion shows was becoming the standard trend. It was only a beginning.

I certainly know that, here, at the Gay & Lesbian Times something huge and exciting is about to take place. We are in the midst of change.

I am proud to announce that the GLT is officially launching a new Web site on Oct. 9: GLTNewsNow.com.

We discussed our plans for such an endeavor in our 20th anniversary issue in March 2008. I’ve sat through more than 15 meetings during the past 18 months discussing what this new project would entail. When I became associate publisher six months ago, I promised that, under my tenure, the GLT would look at the changing media environment straight in the eye, and not hide, but embrace it.

In our discussions about the new site, we’ve found ways to make it both different and similar to our weekly news magazine – the GLT – and corresponding Web site, www.gaylesbiantimes.com.

There is a niche market newspapers fulfill. There will always be a need for them, which will never go away. There is a niche out there that GLTNewsNow.com will specifically fulfill for our community on a local, national and global level.

As the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. approaches on Oct. 10-11 and we celebrate National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11, the time to launch the new Web site is clear and present to me.

GLTNewsNow.com will give you complete coverage of the March, so you won’t miss a thing. We will have five people covering the March for its entire weekend, including longtime friend of the GLT, Russell Roybal, who receives official White House invitations and is a March national co-chair. He will give you behind the scenes coverage and exclusive interviews that no other news source can give.

Beyond that, GLTNewsNow.com will bring groundbreaking stories – the facts, not fiction – and balance and substance, just as we have for more than two decades. We will continue to stand guard to the guards themselves, as our masthead states. There will be complete political coverage, both locally and nationally, from District 3 City Councilmember Todd Gloria, local activist Stephen Whitburn, 23-year-old Joseph Rocha and the Human Rights Campaign’s Stampp Corbin, among others.

GLTNewsNow.com will have news correspondents from San Francisco, Sacramento New York and, of course, Washington D.C. Addditionally, we’ve just secured a Vancouver correspondent to cover the Winter Olympics.

We wouldn’t fulfill every niche unless we brought on social columnists and bloggers as our readers have so often wished for us to do. Kurt Cunningham (Update and Bravo magazine), Dirk Yates, Mike Tidmus, Carolina Ramos and Aaron Heier will write social column’s for the new Web site. Ramos will write “Hola from San Diego” to fulfill our Spanish speaking niche. Look for “Dose” by Aaron Heier, who will be covering lifestyles.

No Web site would be complete without groundbreaking photography and video, so consider it done. We will take you on a journey from New York Fashion Week to exclusive arts and entertainment pieces.

Myself, along with our publisher Michael Portantino, the staff, and our new editor at large, the controversial and colorful Nicole Murray Ramirez, will be here for a good long time to come.

So, let your expectations soar and I can promise that you will not be let down!

Even as we launch a new Web site, the GLT and www.gaylesbiantimes.com will continue to thrive, as they always have.

Newspapers still have the advantage they have always had. They are portable, don’t contain any viruses, and if my neighbor grabs my morning edition, I go to the deli and buy a new one down the street. Every copy of our publication still contains an enormous amount of information and insight.

You will continue to find a new issue of the GLT on the street and at gay-friendly establishments, as well as its online edition at www.gaylesbiantime.com every Thursday evening.

But finally, you now have a third option: GLTNewsNow.com.

Whether you like to read your news from a paper (GLT), read it weekly online (www.gaylesbinatimes.com) or want someone thing more immediate (GLTNewsNow.com), you now have three options. The choice is yours. Enjoy!

Todd Klein

Associate Publisher