Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

I’ve been giving serious thought as to what comes next for this blog. This was before the City Paper closed and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced its closure. Both are not good. And makes me thinking more important.

Typically this time of year, I’d be gearing up for the Political Q&A series, but last year’s disrespect from both Mayoral candidates helped me to realize that I don’t to chase anyone who breaks a commitment to my readers. And to me. So I decided to suspend that series indefinitely. No candidate Q&A’s in 2026. If you want your midterms covered, you need to hold candidates accountable to their promises to little niche outlets as mooch as larger outlets.

I turned my attention back to the arts with a revamped series. Over a dozen local artists said “yes” to participating, then ghosted me. Discouraging.

I pivoted to activists whom I thought would see the value of a little media and appreciate my time and energy. No, they do not.

What people don’t seem to realize is the unique questions that make our Q&A’s so interesting require a lot of my time to create. I research – other media, websites, social media, Wikipedia, etc. I put a lot of thought into crafting the questions. And time, I spend days sometimes.

Too often, I then spend days sending reminders and follow ups, adjusting my publishing schedule. When I ended 2025 and started 2026 trying to track down someone with vast community organizing acumen who should understand that my labor has value, I decided to give up.

Not give up blogging, but to the Q&A’s. Not forever, but just for now. Maybe they aren’t really necessary.

The format appeals to me because I can literally amplify someone’s voice. I do shape the conversation via the questions, but I try to get out of the way of the answers.

I understand people are busy, but they should not make a commitment they can’t keep. Don’t waste my time. If you have a better offer to reach several hundred thousand readers – go for it. I understand life happens, but you can typically carve out a few minutes to send an apology.

Maybe not. Maybe my Q&A posts are for me and not essential for anything. Why beat my head against a wall in that case? I can just read the research materials and satisfy my interest.

I’ve also decided not to review performances that I don’t really want to see. I put so much pressure on myself just trying to schedule someone to be my +1 that I feel no joy there. Again, not leaving forever and I’m sure I’ll review some live theater. I want City Theatre to continue without compromising its artistic integrity. I don’t like the possibility of a merger between City Theatre, Public Theater, and the CLO. The CLO crossed the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette picket line so I have zero trust in their concern for local actors, craftsfolx, stage crew, etc.

There must be other things I can do in this space I’ve built over 20 years. Maybe something entirely new. Maybe I can have some fun? The beauty is that it is still me paying my bills to blog so nothing has changed.

Obviously the loss of of these media juggernauts and what I presume will be even more losses has a impact on my life and my blog. I loathe when people say things that equate my work with theirs. It is unfair and unreasonable. I’ve had a GoFundMe up for two + years to support my work and most people who praise me aren’t on the donor list.

I’m barely hanging on, yet you want more.

If you take every blog, podcast, vlog, email newsletter, content creator and put us together, it is nowhere near adequate to fill gaps left by the demise of our papers. The problem is that people will take some of us at face value in spite of our lack of producers, editors, and fact-checkers.

Maybe we’ll have a David Greene/Lancaster online solution, but we don’t have a David Greene or a paper ownership willing to gift it. Maybe Charlie Batch, Jerome Bettis, Mario Lemieux will save the day but its not really their area of expertise. Mark Cuban? Do we reprint the Trib? None of these feel possible.

It will take time to adjust to a new normal and allow independent journalism to gain a foothold. I guess you can do your past by investing in the outlets that reflect your values. Including this one, but not just us. Do some digging that they aren’t closing themselves. They aren’t going to tell you.

My other concern is that ICE will roll more seriously into this region and our stalwart moderate Democrat leadership will not protect us. We need the fourth estate. We need the retiring journalists to blog. And podcasts. I’d like to do a podcast in partnership with a old school journalist to up my game.

As fictional president Jeb Bartlett would say “What’s next?”