Plus Editor is Named Editorial Director of The Advocate Magazine

Here Media made two pivotal announcements today, including one that named Diane Anderson-Minshall as editorial director for The Advocate’s print magazine. Her editorial services company Retrograde Communications will assume responsibility for production of the The Advocate magazine in 2017. Anderson-Minshall most recently served as The Advocate’s editor at large and is a former executive editor. Neal Broverman continues in that role today as executive editor.

Anderson-Minshall has over two decades of senior-level magazine industry experience. She has founded or led three major women’s alternative magazines, and her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, sites, and newspapers, including Esquire, Seventeen, The New York Times, and USA Today. She is the recipient of half a dozen journalism awards from NLGJA and GLAAD, and after developing the HIV Plus mobile app she was given the 2014 Maggie Leadership Award by the Western Publishing Association. She received the NLGJA’s Lisa Ben Award for Achievement in Features Coverage earlier this year.

She is CEO and chief storyteller of Retrograde Communications, modern editorial services and content development agency that’s LGBT and POC run. The agency now produces two magazines and HIVPlus.com, (HIVPlusMag.com) for Here Media and the sustainability/lifestyle blog Tiny Living Chic, and it's created PSAs and educational materials for non-profit campaigns like Kaiser Family Foundation's Greater than AIDS and Walgreens #GetTested. Anderson-Minshall launched the first fully integrated HIV treatment mobile app in 2013, which has been accessed around the globe for information on antiretrovirals medications, HIV testing, and treatment tracking. She also served as executive producer of The T With Dr. D, a six-part TV series on HIV, PrEP, hep C, other comorbidities, treatment, and prevention. Her commitment to AIDS activism began in the late 1980s when she was a teenager involved in the direct action group, ACT UP.

The other major Here Media announcement was the appointment of Lucas Grindley as editor in chief of The Advocate. Grindley expands his duties while continuing as editorial director and senior vice president for Here Media, the leading LGBT news and entertainment media company. He succeeds Matthew Breen, who was The Advocate’s editor in chief for the past six and a half years.

“So much has changed for the better, and yet the mission of The Advocate feels as vital now as it did when founded 50 years ago,” said Grindley. “All Americans face massive challenges to LGBT principles of equality, fairness, and justice. Whether it’s the next four years or the next 50 years, let there be no doubt The Advocate will fight for our shared principles no matter who is a victim of discrimination or shaming or outright hatred. I’m honored to serve as editor in chief and hope I can make a difference to the people who trust our magazine.”

As editorial director and editor in chief, Anderson-Minshall and Grindley will lead The Advocate into its 50th year as the LGBT community’s news publication of record. They continue The Advocate’s tradition, since 1967, of delivering in-depth analysis of issues critical to the LGBT community.

Grindley has already begun positioning the brand as an intersectional voice to combat what he calls “President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-equality agenda.” Immediately after Election Day, Advocate.com launched a weekly email newsletter and video series, “The Resistance.”

Grindley has led coverage on Advocate.com of major stories including Supreme Court decisions on marriage equality and the Pulse tragedy in Orlando, and he aggressively raised awareness about the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, to combat HIV by publishing a new story every day for 31 consecutive days in 2014. Since joining the Here Media team, Grindley has more than doubled Advocate.com’s average monthly unique users.

Grindley joined The Advocate in 2011 after serving as online managing editor for National Journal magazine in Washington, D.C. He led Advocate.com to a win in Folio magazine’s 2016 Eddie Digital Awards as the nation’s top consumer news magazine website. NLGJA, the Association of LGBTQ Journalists, honored Grindley with its 2016 Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for LGBT Journalist of the Year.

He has led The Advocate in expanding its coverage from a focus strictly on LGBT people to one on "LGBT principles" — the principles that bind LGBT people and other oppressed groups.  He underlined this in accepting the NLGJA award.

Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump's condemnation of Mexican immigrants, and similar stories are all LGBT stories because they involve LGBT principles, he said in his acceptance speech. The Advocate has always been "about fairness ... about justice" and fighting discrimination and shame in all their forms, he emphasized. "Even if it wasn't founded by a group of queer women, Black Lives Matter would be an LGBT story, because do you remember where we came from?" he said. "Do you remember what Stonewall was about? Do you remember police brutality?" 

In announcing Grindley's new duties, Here Media CEO Paul Colichman praised him highly. “Lucas exemplifies the best of 21st-century journalism," said Colichman. "His keen mind, social media savvy, and digital acumen have transformed The Advocate into a model of multiplatform content delivery. The NLGJA honored his devotion to our community this summer by naming him LGBT Journalist of the Year. I can think of no better person to helm The Advocate during our 50th anniversary year. Our founders would be so proud."