Watermark

About Watermark

The first issue came out on August 31, 1994 — and the inspiration came over lunch in Atlanta. Tom Dyer, an Orlando attorney, was eating in a Virginia-Highlands restaurant when he saw half a dozen people reading their just-delivered Southern Voice. "It was something I wanted for Orlando," he said. Watermark — Orlando and Tampa Bay's award-winning LGBT newspaper — was the result: founded by Dyer in 1994, expanded to Tampa Bay in 1995, and publishing every other Thursday for 30 years. In August 2024, it marked its 30th birthday with a retrospective spanning nearly 800 issues. "Watermark has been telling the stories of Central Florida and Tampa Bay's LGBTQ+ communities for 30 years now," wrote editor-in-chief Jeremy Williams.

1994: Tom Dyer's founding

Tom Dyer — born in Lancaster, Ohio in 1955, raised in the Orlando area from 1969, a graduate of Winter Park High School, DePauw University and the University of Florida's Levin College of Law — founded Watermark Media in Orlando in 1994. "Orlando had a growing LGBT community with few ways to communicate with each other or to share things of importance," Dyer explained. "I felt like the lack of a newspaper was holding us back." The first issue appeared August 31, 1994; the paper began generating biweekly issues, publishing every other Thursday. Dyer was undercapitalized — "things were very tight for the first two to three years. I worked long hours and took no salary while trying to stay on top of a law practice." He was publisher from the founding until 2014 and editor until 2009, all while practicing law as a senior partner at Dyer & Blaisdell.

Expansion to Tampa Bay

Watermark expanded to cover Tampa Bay in 1995 — just a year after its Orlando launch — becoming a two-market paper serving Central Florida and the Gulf Coast. Before 1999, it printed 20,000 copies per issue, distributing to over 500 locations across its two major cities; later figures put the print run at up to 20,000 depending on the issue, with distribution at more than 500 Florida locations. Its coverage area grew to more than a dozen counties — Daytona Beach, Orlando, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota — a vast swath of Florida's LGBTQ+ life. In 1999, the paper launched watermarkonline.com, shifting toward an online-plus-print model. Its readership: 81% aged 25–54, median age 36, average household income around $90,000–$95,000, 68% homeowners — an affluent, engaged audience.

Gay Days and the Beach Ball

Watermark's signature achievement beyond journalism was creating LGBTQ+ Florida's biggest party. In 1997, Watermark Media produced the Beach Ball at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon — the first large-scale nighttime party associated with Gay Days Weekend, the largest annual LGBT gathering in the nation. The paper publishes a glossy guide to Gay Days Weekend, plus programs for St. Pete Pride in June and Orlando's Come Out With Pride in October. As Rep. Alan Grayson told Congress in 2014, honoring Dyer during Pride Month: the company donates more than $200,000 annually in free and sponsored advertising to worthy LGBT nonprofits. Watermark didn't just cover the community's celebrations — it helped invent them.

The rainbow-flag fight

In 1998, Watermark sought to hang rainbow flags throughout downtown Orlando during Gay Pride Month. The city reluctantly acquiesced — but the controversy made national news when televangelist Pat Robertson predicted Orlando would be beset by hurricanes as divine punishment. It was classic Watermark: using the paper's institutional weight to push the community's visibility, and absorbing the backlash with the confidence of a publication that knew its readers. Dyer's interviews with luminaries — Gloria Steinem, Billie Jean King, Lily Tomlin, Martina Navratilova — gave the paper national reach; his interview with then-gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist went viral via HuffPost, CNN and MSNBC.

Pulse: "we grieve here"

On June 12, 2016, a gunman murdered 49 people at Pulse nightclub in Orlando — and Watermark, the city's LGBT paper, became its community's crisis newsroom. After getting a story up Sunday morning, digital director Jamie Hyman built resources for readers: how to give blood, where to donate, lists of vigils, traffic closures, coverage of the community pulling together. Days later, the paper published a multi-page Pulse package. Watermark Publishing's statement began: "Watermark isn't just Central Florida's LGBT news source; we are members of the local LGBT community. We live here, we work here, we love here. And now, we grieve here." As Poynter noted: "We don't just cover the community, we are the community." It was the paper's defining hour — journalism as mutual aid.

2016: Rick Claggett takes over

In 2016, Rick Claggett — a longtime Watermark employee — purchased the paper, forming the Watermark Publishing Group. As publisher and editor, Claggett has led the paper through its third decade: a staff of around 7–13 (depending on the year), with bureau chiefs for Central Florida and Tampa Bay, publishing every other Thursday in a just-under-tabloid format averaging 56 pages. The paper's "In Depth" section tackles stories of national appeal through a local lens; its "Wedding Bells" feature celebrates an LGBTQ wedding each edition. Dyer, who stayed on through the transition, reflected at the 30th anniversary: "Together, we stood up to discrimination in its ugliest forms, endured a devastating pandemic and claimed our equality."

30 years: the archive

Watermark's history is preserved in the Watermark Collection at the University of Central Florida's RICHES digital archive — "the cornerstone source of LGBTQ+ centered news for the Central Florida region" since 1994. The 30th-anniversary issue (August 29, 2024) ran a massive retrospective: photos and reminiscences from every year of publication, contributions from past editors, and Dyer's own message. "That adds up to nearly 800 issues of the newspaper," Williams wrote, "along with about 100 different specialty magazines over the years." Thirty years, two markets, nearly 800 issues — and, via watermarkonline.com, an international audience.

Design and demographics: a hybrid paper

Watermark's physical form reflects its ambition: an 11-by-12-inch hybrid of newspaper and magazine — "a crisp, eye-catching design," as Dyer put it — averaging 56 pages (up to 72), with a print run up to 20,000. Its Press Pass Q profiles captured the operation at two eras: 12 full-time staff plus 20 contributors in the Dyer years; a leaner team of 7 under Claggett, with bureau chiefs for each market. The demographics tell the business story: median age 36, mean income $90,000, 68% homeowners — the affluent, loyal audience advertisers prize. And the content mix — hard news, the "In Depth" national section, "Wedding Bells," arts and entertainment — serves a community that wants both its politics and its pleasures.

Still publishing

From Tom Dyer's Atlanta lunch inspiration in 1994 through the Beach Ball, the rainbow-flag fight, Pulse, and the Claggett era, Watermark has been Central Florida and Tampa Bay's LGBTQ+ newspaper for three decades — award-winning, community-rooted, and still publishing every other Thursday. "We don't just cover the community, we are the community" — that has been the paper's promise since August 31, 1994, and it keeps it still. Its official website is watermarkonline.com. Thirty years, nearly 800 issues, two markets, one promise: Watermark doesn't just cover Central Florida and Tampa Bay's LGBTQ+ community — it is that community, in print, every other Thursday.