PlanetOut, Inc. was an American online media and entertainment company that targeted the

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

(

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

) community. It was founded in 1995 by Tom Rielly as an early internet-based media company. PlanetOut began as an independent content provider with a forum on the Microsoft Network (MSN) and also offered services through

America Online AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc. The service tra ...

(AOL). PlanetOut operated several prominent LGBT-focused platforms, including

Gay.com Gay.com was a chat, personals, and social networking website catering to the LGBT community. The site was a digital brand of Here Media Inc. In addition to community features, the site featured LGBT-related news and features. As of September 20 ...

and PlanetOut.com, and later acquired well-known print publications such as ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States * ''The Harvard Advocate' ...

'' and ''

Out Out or OUT may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films *Out (1957 film), ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 *Out (1982 film), ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander *O ...

''. In 2009, PlanetOut merged with Here Networks and Regent Entertainment Media to form

Here Media Here Media Inc. is an LGBTQ-oriented media company. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company produces and distributes niche content focused on LGBT consumers. History Here Media was founded in 2009 by Paul Colichman and Stephen P. Jarchow when H ...

History

PlanetOut launched in August 1995 on the

Microsoft Network MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps provided by Microsoft. The main webpage provides news, weather, sports, finance and other content curated from hundreds of different sources that Microsoft has partnere ...

(MSN). It was founded by Tom Rielly alongside a core team of early staff members, including Darren Nye (MSN Producer and Community Director), Christian Williams (Technical Director),

Jenni Olson Jenni Olson (born October 6, 1962) is a writer, archivist, historian, consultant, and non-fiction filmmaker based in Berkeley, California. She co-founded the pioneering LGBT website PlanetOut.com. Her two feature-length essay films — ''The Joy ...

(Arts & Entertainment Producer, PopcornQ), and Greg Gordon (News Producer). In April 1996, with Rielly serving as President and Jon Huggett as CEO, PlanetOut Inc. closed its first round of funding—a $3 million minority investment from

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...

and

. In September 1996, PlanetOut expanded its services to the web. By late 1996, internal challenges related to management culture and strategic direction began affecting the company. Rielly was removed as president, and in January 1997, Sequoia Capital withdrew its investment. Most other investors, including AOL, continued to support the company. Following the leadership shake-up, Huggett departed, and Rielly temporarily returned as CEO. PlanetOut was later acquired by Online Partners, the parent company of

, and the merged company was renamed PlanetOut Partners Inc. The newly formed company became profitable, primarily through Gay.com's subscription-based membership and online advertising revenue. It went public in October 2004, with

Lowell Selvin Lowell Selvin (born April 15, 1959) is the former chairman and CEO of PlanetOut Inc. He oversaw the merger of PlanetOut Corp. and Online Partners, and acquisitions of LPI Media and RSVP (a travel company). Biography Selvin graduated from the Uni ...

as CEO and Gay.com founder

Mark Elderkin Mark Elderkin (born September 27, 1963) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Gay.com in 1994 with his husband Jeff O. Bennett. Elderkin served as President of PlanetOut Inc. when the company went public in 2004. He retired from the compan ...

as president. Despite early success, the company began to struggle financially. At the end of 2006, it reported a net loss of $3.7 million on revenues of $68.6 million. While this represented a 93% improvement over 2005 revenues, the acquisition of RSVP Vacations marked a turning point that signaled further financial decline. In April 2008, PlanetOut announced a letter of intent to sell its publishing division (LPI) and specialty publications to

Regent Releasing Regent Releasing was a U.S. theatrical distribution company based in Los Angeles, California, under the umbrella of Regent Entertainment, which was owned by producers Paul Colichman (formerly of IRS Media) and Stephen P. Jarchow. Focusing on n ...

, the parent company of Here! Films.

References

{{reflist Companies based in San Francisco Internet properties established in 1995 LGBTQ-related mass media in the United States Mass media companies of the United States