November 16, 2007
X-Factor Magazine to Fold - Sister Zsa Zsa in Last Issue
"Sister Zsa Zsa Glamour's Epistle to the Gay Porn Industry" is featured on the cover of the final issue of the Phoenix-based porn publication, X-Factor.
PRESS RELEASE
X-Factor to cease publication
Phoenix, Nov. 16, 2007 — After an 18-year run, X-Factor is closing its
doors. In October, General Manager Tim DePlanche announced that the
publisher was terminating the magazine at the end of 2007. DePlanche did
not give a reason for the decision.
X-Factor had its origins among a group of seven friends in 1988, who
wanted to publish a new gay newsmagazine in Phoenix. That magazine
debuted in September 1989, as Echo Magazine. The back pages of Echo were
the "adult section." They consisted of personals, phone sex ads and gay
porn reviews by a freelance writer calling himself Onan the Vulgarian,
who quickly found a permanent home there.
The adult content of Echo proved to be an obstacle to achieving wider
distribution and finding outlets to stock the free magazine. As a
result, the controversial material evolved into a separate pull-out
section. When that proved to be unwieldy, the pull-out section became
X-Factor.
The first independent X-Factor appeared on Halloween: Oct. 31, 1994. It
featured Adam Hart and Joshua Sterling on the cover, in a film by John
Trennell for Studio 2000, called "Nights in Eden." That video got an
average 2-shirt rating from Onan, who gave a Scorched Shirt to Pleasure
Productions' "Interior Motives" in the same issue.
In 1996, with the growth of the Internet and the decline of phone sex
advertising, Ken Furtado, one of the founders of Echo, was made editor
of X-Factor, to develop new content and attract wider readership.
"Lefty Mouser" was the first new writer hired by Furtado, to review gay
websites. Other columns were soon added, including the popular
Whoroscopes, book reviews, sex fitness, The Naked Traveler and the
annual Hard Choice Awards, Onan's distinctively idiosyncratic gay porn
awards. A Web site was added in 1998.
The adult industry pricked up its ears, as did fans. Over the years,
X-Factor won many accolades and awards, both in the USA and abroad, for
its unique content.
Furtado says, "I always wanted X-Factor to give readers something they
could not find elsewhere, and my writers and I have succeeded in doing
that. The demand for print copies continues to be greater than the
number of magazines available and online readership is at its all-time
high."
Although the print publication will no longer exist, Furtado plans to
launch a new version of X-Factor online early in 2008. The new
incarnation of X-Factor will have a different URL but most of the same
columns and writers, plus new features. Readers can email
xxxfactor@earthlink.net and request to be put on a one-time-only mailing
list to be notified when the new site is launched.
Echo Magazine will continue to be published.
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Posted by lavenderlounge at 6:23 PM
Comments
CONGRATULATIONS TO ZEB ATLAS! I heard from a friend who goes to his gym in Vegas that he is going to be the international spokesman and model for Vegas SHADE Sunglasses. I saw a pair at the Bellagio...SWEET and pricey. Perfect for a God like ZEB! Good luck man! Send me a pair please? LOL
Posted by: MW at October 22, 2004 12:27 AM
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