Gay Times has launched a talent agency that represents LGBTQ+ people as the title plans for further expansion in its 40th year.
The agency will begin by signing content creators before expanding into other markets. Its brand name is to be revealed this spring.
Chief executive Tag Warner told Campaign that the talent agency would make Gay Times' commercial offering a lot more integrated and "brings us closer with partners".
The benefit is twofold, said Warner, because the team is able to provide the right "infrastructure" to support LGBTQ+ talent.
He added: "It's based on insights that talent was giving us that they weren't getting [what they needed] from their existing offering out in the wild.
"So they maybe had a great management but they didn't understand the specifics around what it means to be an LGBTQ+ person in the industry."
Gay Times' commercial model relies heavily on partnerships, which account for 50% of its revenue, while the other half is made up of direct-to-customer offerings and experiential.
When it comes to finding influencers and content creators for these brand partnerships, Gay Times usually has to outsource this role to an external partner and has to incorporate further costs.
Editorial and commercial verticals
The talent agency follows changes to other parts of the title. Gay Times has also launched an editorial and commercial travel vertical, Outmost, which provides travel guidance for LGBTQ+ people.
Flourish, a mental wellbeing vertical, is set to follow suit.
Spearheaded by UK editorial director, Megan Wallace, columns on gaming, finance, sex and relationships are also part of the editorial expansion.
Warner said: "Brands want to target audiences much more closely, they often get a much better return on investment when they have a more engaged audience. We feel really confident about giving our partners more opportunities to reach smaller audiences."
The new strands, Warner added, were conceptualised because the brand's audience was telling Gay Times that they were not getting information that was "relevant" to them as an LGBTQ+ customer.
Gay Times ceased publishing a monthly print magazine in September 2021 and shifted to what it calls a "continuous publishing" model. The number of staff working at the title has also increased from 11 to 45.
Gay Times' "digital and social-first strategy" includes the brand sharing breaking news on Instagram by including a headline and imagery, which has grown its social audience "very quickly".
Warner explained that the title has also diversified its audience from being very male-focused to now spanning different sexualities and genders.