The story
Liberation Publications began with a police raid at the Black Cat bar in Los Angeles in 1966, prompting a handful of gay men to start a mimeographed sheet newsletter for the gay community. This grew into The Advocate magazine the following year and remained the only US LGBTQ magazine for nearly 25 years.
In February 2000, Liberation acquired Out Publishing Inc., which publishes Out and HIV Plus magazines. Then president and chief executive of Liberation, James Franklin, said the deal would "move the print properties into the electronic arena" and added that the Internet was popular with gay and lesbian readers because of "the closet factor."PlanetOut attempted in March 2000 to merge with LPI, but this was called off in March 2001.
Out Traveler, a magazine spin-off of Out, launched in 2003.
In November 2005, LPI merged with PlanetOut, which mainly has developed online properties to become the world's largest media company targeting LGBT communities. LPI's "solid accounts list of fashion, retail and consumer packaged goods advertisers" was cited among its strong selling points. Criticism of the merger centered on two aspects: that a consolidation of national media outlets of a minority community is unlikely to add diversity of voices; and that the publications were established and supported in an effort to secure human rights for gays and lesbians but now are instead delivering a market share to corporations.
In April 2008, press reports said that the magazines published by LPI as well as the porn magazines published by Specialty Publications were to be sold by PlanetOut to Regent Releasing, which owns here!, a cable television network catering to LGBT audiences.
A SEC filing indicates that the agreement was completed in August 2008, with Here Media Inc. the new owner of LPI, Specialty Publications, and LPI's book company, Alyson Publications.
From Wikipedia’s article on LPI Media, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4