Gaydar faces $40K lawsuit, rebrands as SoVo and David

If you want to get an idea of the helter-skelter world of Gaydar, this week would be a pretty good indication of what it’s like: they finalized the purchase of the assets of Southern Voice and David within 48 hours of settling a $40,000 lawsuit with a printer who claimed nonpayment.
They also shuffled their employee structure again, compared SoVo and David to Enron and they asked the public not to hold them up to the standards of the very publications that they are now changing their names to.  Are we up to speed?
OK we’ll back up.  Project Q has the rundown on this one.  First off, Gaydar and Atlanta Free Press publisher Matt Neumann, along with newcomer Victor Paster, bought out the Gaydar shares of Macon businessman Ennis Grady Odom and are now co-owners.  Brian Sawyer is now CFO.  Chip O’Kelley, who took over AFP from Neumann after the Zack Hudson debacle, has been bumped down to errand boy according to Neumann.
Gaydar finalized the purchased of the SoVo/David assets on Monday and, as many in the LGBT community seem to be taking about as well as a tire iron to the spleen, confirmed they will be rebranding Gaydar as David and launching a new Southern Voice.

“We are in production for David to hit the streets next Wednesday,” Neumann said. “We are taking big steps to make it a better product next week with some refinements to Gaydar. We are going to launch SoVo, but that is something that is a couple of weeks down the road. Anything worthwhile is worth waiting for. We are going to get David out for a couple of weeks and get it up to standard and then proceed with SoVo.”

Then Wednesday came a settlement agreement with Page Enterprises, who printed Gaydar last fall.

Once invoices for Gaydar went unpaid after 30 days, Page Printing sent Odom a demand notice for payment on Nov. 30 after “numerous” efforts to work with Neumann for payment were unsuccessful, Page said. Odom didn’t respond, either, so the company moved ahead with the lawsuit, which was filed Dec. 21. The complaint also sought attorney’s fees. Odom could not be reached on Friday for comment.

“Gaydar has acted in bad faith, has been stubbornly litigious, or has caused Page Enterprises unnecessary trouble and expense, entitling Page Enterprises, pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 13-6-11, to recover attorney’s fees and expenses of litigation of $3,792.13,” according to the lawsuit.

In January, the company asked the court for a default judgment, but the two companies met on Wednesday and reached an agreement to settle the case. The agreement calls for Gaydar to pay $34,000 in equal payments on April 2, 16 and 30 to settle the case.

Then on to the Neumann Enron theory.

“On the scale of things, a lot of people look at us as a villain because we had a debt and a dispute with somebody, but really? Compare it to David and SoVo prior to bankruptcy. They are Enron. We may be disputing our light bill, but they are Enron. We are a business like any other small business. But don’t hold us up to the standards of a 30-year-old publication. They failed. We are a year old,” Neumann said.

So look for a new David to hit the streets Mar. 10 with a new Southern Voice a couple weeks after that. And smack dab in the middle of that is the just-announced Mar. 19 launch date of GA Voice.
Like sands through the hourglass, these are the gays of our lives.