NEW YORK: Grindr, the gay dating app, has launched a digital magazine that aims to circumvent potential advertisers’ fears about brand safety.

Named 'Into', the new media property taps into Grindr’s 3m daily users who spend almost an hour a day on the platform, with content covering pop culture, fashion and travel.

“We hear from brands that know their audience is on Grindr, but simply don’t advertise within any sort of dating environment,” Michele Tobin, Grindr’s VP/brand partnerships and advertising, told Ad Exchanger.

“This is very much a brand-safe destination, and offers opportunities for a broader swath of advertisers to reach the LGBTQ audience.”

Early mainstream advertisers in the US include the TV show "American Horror Story" and Halo Top ice cream.

Much of the current advertising is display with some pre-roll but branded video and events are planned for the future. And while all ads are now being sold direct, programmatic sales are expected at some stage.

The publication is also adopting a “global approach with localized context”, having recruited some 200 contributors from around the world to supply content that can be pushed to relevant users, although, for now at least, the Into website is not being integrated into the Grindr app.

“One of Grindr’s unique propositions has always been its ability to reach the LGBT audience at scale,” Tobin said, adding that Grindr reached a younger demographic than established publications in this space.

“Many of the publications that currently address this market, and paved the way, have been around for many decades,” he said. “The audience is much older.”

Data sourced from Ad Exchanger, Digiday; additional content by WARC staff