Gay News Magazine Blade Is Looking Sharp After Its First Year : Publishing: Conservative approach is credited for success, achieved despite early predictions of difficulty. Issues have nearly doubled in size since the beginning.

Against predictions that it would walk a difficult path in conservative Orange County, a gay and lesbian news magazine is thriving after a year in business.

Recent issues of the Blade are nearly twice as thick as those a year ago: 82 pages in June, compared to 46 last year.

“I didn’t know whether we would ever be in this spot, and I certainly didn’t expect it this quickly,” Publisher Bill LaPointe said.

He said the magazine fills a niche and has taken a conservative approach. It contains no nudity, LaPointe said, and no “gross” language. This month’s issue includes articles on women in sports, the recent gay and lesbian march on Washington, and male rape.

Subscribers can order it delivered in a plain brown wrapper. On the newsstand, the Blade is distributed free, so it relies heavily on advertising dollars.

“If they’ve been able to double their page size, that’s quite an accomplishment,” said Steven Churm, publisher of the Orange County Metropolitan, another free publication. “The Orange County economy is still struggling. (The Blade) must be doing a good job of showing the value of its readers (to advertisers) as well as having a strong distribution.”

Working in the Blade’s favor is the willingness of non-gay advertisers to seek out the publication’s relatively affluent readers, said Jeff Yarbrough, editor-in-chief of the Advocate, a national gay and lesbian newsmagazine based in Los Angeles.

Recent market research shows that lesbians have an average household income of $45,927 and that gay men average $51,325. The national average for all households is $36,520.

“It’s hard to be homophobic during a recession,” said Yarbrough, paraphrasing a recent quote by a movie studio executive in the Advocate.