Paul Colichman is building a gay media empire

Cult filmmaker John Waters calls him "the gay Citizen Hearst."

Though Paul Colichman is by no means as well known, rich or powerful as the legendary newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, he's trying to forge his own maverick path in the media world.

Five years ago, Colichman and his business partner launched Here, television's only premium gay cable network. Now, with an eye toward building their empire, they recently made a $6.5-million deal to buy the popular news magazine the Advocate, style monthly Out and other sister publications.

Colichman, who also owns the gay entertainment Internet portal GayWired.com, plans to expand the online presence of his new publications once the acquisition closes.

"People say, 'Why would you buy a print publication when you're really in the television business?' " said Colichman. "But our point of view is that everything is cross-platformed now -- we are in the content business, and to generate profit you need to be everywhere."

Colichman, 46, and his odd-couple business partner, Stephen P. Jarchow -- a straight family man from the Midwest -- also produce and distribute low-cost films and TV shows at their 13-year-old company, Regent Entertainment. They work from a penthouse in Westwood, just blocks away from where Colichman was born.

Colichman, whose father was a nuclear chemist and mother a bacteriologist, had no family connections in Hollywood. After earning an MBA at UCLA, he worked briefly at Fox before partnering with music impresario Miles Copeland in film company I.R.S. Media. Among their releases was the 1992 crime thriller "One False Move," the first produced script from a little-known actor named Billy Bob Thornton.

In 1995, entertainment attorney Peter Dekom introduced Colichman and Jarchow, 57, a tax and real estate lawyer who was hunting for business opportunities. Polar opposites in demeanor and lifestyle, the two nonetheless clicked over lunch at Barney Greengrass in Beverly Hills.

"Their differences made it work," Dekom said. "Paul's a visionary and dynamo, and Stephen is someone who knows how to get things financed and structured."

With a few million dollars of their own money, they formed Regent, and three years later they made a splash with the drama "Gods and Monsters," about the last days of "Frankenstein" director James Whale. The low-cost film won director Bill Condon the best-adapted-screenplay Oscar.