QBURGH FOUNDERS JEFF FREEDMAN, LEFT, AND JIM SHEPPARD HAM IT UP IN THEIR OFFICES AT THE MEDIA HUB, DOWNTOWN. | PHOTO BY LAURA PETRILLA

The pandemic was raging in 2020, when Jeff Freedman and Jim Sheppard came up with what they called “a crazy idea.”

They decided to start QBurgh, a publication for Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ community — even though neither had any journalism experience. Freedman, 65, is a former accountant; Sheppard, 39, has a background in government, public policy and web and graphic design. They met through their advocacy and Pride activities.

The pandemic was “a devastating hit on our community,” Freedman says. There were no resources for people to connect, no publication specifically covering the LGBTQ+ community. “There was no place to go … Everything was shut down.

“So we launched out of necessity,” Freedman says. “And it was a crazy idea, considering neither one of us had any sort of idea of what we were doing.”

Five years in, QBurgh publishes a free, comprehensive website that is updated daily with a range of local and national news (through a LGBTQ+ news syndication service and some national partners), events and activities, plus its community directory, known as the Pink Pages. There are also sections on health and wellness, LGBTQ+ history and community safety tips. QBurgh sends two free newsletters a week to 38,000 email subscribers and produces a regular podcast. In addition, they print two magazines a year — a “Pittsburgh Pride Guide” summer edition and a late-fall/winter edition focused on seasonal news and activities, calendar events and a resource directory.

“We had a love of the community,” adds Sheppard. “When we first started, I know some folks may have looked at us strange, like, ‘Why do we need this? There’s Facebook, there’s the other social media that’s growing’ … But by having QBurgh as a central place for LGBTQ local information, you can get to far more people,” he says.

Freedman agrees. “We are an online, live community center.”

QBurgh follows a long line of LGBTQ-focused publications in Pittsburgh, some lasting just two or three years. Pittsburgh’s OUT ran the longest, between 1979 to 2012, and then transitioned briefly to online publishing. Sheppard is digitizing those publications to preserve the city’s LGBTQ+ history and to make them more accessible to the public (He’s running a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for digitizing services).

“I’m pretty much reliving the ’70s and ’80s right now, going through each magazine and Pittsburgh Gay News … they were pretty comprehensive,” Sheppard says. “They covered local news, national news — especially the HIV-AIDS epidemic and how that affected the region.”

QBurgh operates out of Downtown’s Media Hub in the Benedum-Trees Building, made available to the Center for Media Innovation at Point Point University. Philanthropist Bill Benter donated the office space, and The Benter Foundation renovated the floor and provides operating support for the hub. The space includes a podcast studio and other support services for QBurgh and other small media outlets.

While QBurgh brings in enough revenue to pay freelancers and its web-support staff, neither Freedman nor Sheppard draw a salary from the magazine. Freedman quit his job as an accountant last October to focus full time on QBurgh. They credit their spouses for supporting them.

The duo gets a lot of feedback about QBurgh, its community directory and calendar of events, especially from newcomers to Pittsburgh who tell them the content makes them feel welcome here.

Through October, QBurgh is running its first readers’ survey to get a sense of their audience and what other services they can provide. Interest ranges from late teenagers to those 65 and older, says Sheppard. “No one demographic is standing out more than the other.”

Going forward, they are building up their social-media presence and may add a third print magazine edition at some point. They also promote QBurgh at a booth at Pride. Both are well-known in Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ community. Freedman, a founding member of the Steel City Softball League in the early 1980s, was the grand marshal of the 2025 Pride parade; Sheppard was president of the Steel City Stonewall Democrats for five years and served as a commissioner on the City of Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission, which investigates instances of discrimination and other issues.

Surprisingly, both say they “hated” the QBurgh name when it was first proposed, but now they can’t imagine anything else.

“One of the things that I wish for QBurgh is that we represent the whole community. You know, we have a lot of letters out there to represent,” Freedman says. “It’s our duty and our responsibility to provide that forum so that each one gets its proper recognition. And that we provide that in a safe space for everyone.”

Readers can subscribe to QBurgh for $10 per year. The magazine and its Pink Pages are available for pickup at businesses, hotels, university campuses, select Giant Eagle and Shop ’n Save locations, Carnegie Library branches and designated inclusive spaces throughout the region.