Seattle Center to Host Gay and Lesbian Trade Exhibition By Joe Haberstroh The Seattle Times Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Oct. 5--Michael Fiacco, who is gay, wants to get the word out about SoulMates, his "very serious introduction service" for gays and lesbians. State Farm Insurance agent Susie Smith, who is straight, finds that many lesbian couples are most comfortable buying policies from a female agent. "I'm not making a political statement," said Smith, who advertises her Lynnwood agency in Twist Weekly, a local gay newspaper. "I just know it's an area that can increase my business." With exhibitors as divergent as Smith and Fiacco, Twist Publisher Mark Karten hopes to capitalize on the expanding gay market with Expo '93, the first gay and lesbian trade show this weekend at Seattle Center. The expo, which coincides with National Coming Out weekend, is 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the center. All-ages dance parties are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. A $7 admission fee includes the expo, the dances and all entertainment. Besides Fiacco and Smith, Karten has signed up locally based businesses such as Northwest On Stage magazine and John L. Scott real estate, and national marketers such as Shocking Gray, which publishes a catalog of gay- related products, and Atlantis Events, a Los Angeles travel club. The Cuff, a local bar, and New York-based Out Magazine also are sponsoring the event, which will feature about 50 commercial exhibitor booths. Local nonprofit groups also will set up information booths, and some proceeds will go to the Northwest AIDS Foundation and the Chicken Soup Brigade. Clay Reeves, director of business development for San Antonio, Texas- based Shocking Gray, places Seattle in the top five of the nation's gay markets. The company's 40-page fall catalog tilts to the holidays, with products including red-ribbon ornaments (for AIDS awareness). Gay artisans make many of the products. The 2-year-old catalog sputtered at first but in 1992 recorded more than $1 million in sales, Reeves said. "We thought this expo would be a good opportunity to see what other businesses are doing, get our name out there, try to raise our profile a bit," Reeves said. The profile of the national gay market has begun to attract the attention of mass marketers, said Michael Gravois of Rivendell Marketing Co., a national advertising representative for 175 gay and lesbian publications. "We tend to make more money and have fewer dependents," he said. "We have this high amount of disposable and discretionary income." New York-based Simmons Market Research has produced glittering figures: The gay consumer is 4.9 times more likely than the average U.S. consumer to buy a compact disc, for example, and 3.4 times more likely to have made a foreign trip in the past three years. Gay Americans also make more money on average and are more likely to have a job than straight Americans, and more than half have professional or managerial jobs. Like many things associated with the gay community, however, the lure of the gay consumer has changed with political and social tides. When the full impact of AIDS hit in the early 1980s, Gravois said, the ad market for gay and lesbian publications ebbed. As AIDS has become a more mainstream topic, national advertisers have returned. "Each year that passes by that the gay community becomes less controversial," he said, "it's more likely to be targeted by the advertising community." Local businesses see the expo as a good opportunity to promote without spending precious dollars on more traditional advertising. Although the expo is not designed exclusively to appeal to gay consumers, businesses will enjoy the focused attention of those customers. "What we want to do is promote the magazine, which is about theater and the arts in the Northwest," said Duell Fisher, publisher of Northwest On Stage. "And let's face it, there are a lot gay people involved in the arts, as professionals and customers." Even before she opened her State Farm agency 18 month ago, Smith noticed that many female clients simply liked doing business with female agents. She checked out Twist Weekly, judged it "professional and clean" and began placing ads. "I think that the gay and lesbian community appreciates good customer service from a professional who can advise them how to cover their needs," Smith said. "If the community can accept me as a straight person, then I can accept them as a gay person or a lesbian." Fiacco also wants to get the word out on his "introduction service" - but carefully. Potential customers are wary. --------------------- Gay Journalists Critical of TV Coverage The Miami Herald Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Oct. 4--Most gay and lesbian broadcast journalists say their newsrooms are comfortable places to work, but many are highly critical of coverage of gay issues, a survey released Friday shows. Seventy-two percent of newsroom managers praised their coverage of violence against gays, while only 35 percent of the gay journalists agreed. The survey was released by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation. The gay and lesbian journalists were also critical of how television covered the gays-in-the-military issue and the recent march on Washington for gay civil rights. Many of the journalists said their news managers rarely consult them about coverage of gay and lesbian issues. "The survey is an important part of the work we are doing in the area of newsroom diversity," said Eric Swanson, executive director of the news directors' foundation. "Diverse newsrooms not only better reflect the communities they serve, but should add considerably to the depth and quality of the coverage they provide." Two-thirds of the 179 gay and lesbian journalists who responded say they are "out" in the workplace. The journalists and the managers agreed that sexual orientation does not generally affect career advancement, but 9 percent of the 228 news managers who responded said whether an on-air employee was gay might make a difference in hiring. ----------- NEW YORK News Briefs - 0:25 a.m. (Oct. 5) COMTEX - Conservative candidate Herb London is hot on the campaign trail, for the second time seeking Governor Cuomo's position. The professor at New York University is calling Cuomo the Rumplestilskin of New York. He also says rival Alfonse D'Amato is hardly fiscally fit. 54-year-old London says he plans to get rid of the homosexual cirriculum in New York City schools.