Florida Agenda expands, launches website
By DMITRY RASHNITSOV
Mark List, the popular GLBT resource in Florida has expanded its services to cities all across the United States. Beginning May 12 and continuing for 10 days, websites that specialize in targeting the GLBT communities will launch in Chicago, Atlanta, Toronto, Washington D.C., Boston, San Diego, Seattle, Fire Island, Palm Springs, Provincetown and Manhattan.
“We are bringing the successful Mark’s List concept to some of the top GLBT friendly cities all across the country,” said Mark’s List Founder Mark Haines.
“We are truly a local small business success story. From our humble beginnings, we are locally grown and now will be nationally known.”
Haines started his business, www.JumpOnMarksList.com, nearly a decade ago by posting bar listings and photos from Fort Lauderdale bars.
He has steadily expanded the website to become the premier destination for all GLBT related things in the entire state. In November 2009, Haines became a coowner of Multimedia Partners, a venture that helped establish the Florida Agenda newspaper and Mark magazine.
“The past year has been incredible for us,” Haines said. “From the launch of Mark magazine, to this nationwide expansion, soon Mark’s List will be the premier GLBT resource for everyone in the United States. Travelers will use us to find out every bar special while locales can log on to see pictures of their friends from the night before.”
In addition to a bar guide and photos, two of the most popular sections of the website, Mark’s List also offers restaurant, movie and play reviews, workout tips, travel columns and real estate listings.
While Mark’s List is expanding to other cities the Florida Agenda is also launching it’s online presence at www.FloridaAgenda.com. The website will feature all the content found in the newspaper, along with breaking news, daily updates and extra features only found online. “Our papers are flying so quickly off the racks, we realized that readers are loving our content and want to be able to access it all the time,” said Mark Magazine and Florida Agenda Publisher Kevin Hopper. “The website is a great way to showcase our local content that no one else in the community is covering.”
Hopper said the summer months are typically when publications slow down and advertising becomes scarce but not this year.
“This is my first summer in publishing when we are going to be busier than ever around here,” Hopper said. “I am so excited for everyone to check out all of our new ventures.”
Haines said that they plan on adding even more cities to the Jump On Marks List portfolio by the end of the year and plans for an expansion of Mark Magazine to several cities is also in the works.