In addition to political free speech issues, the libertarian values of Barb founder Max Scherr and staff included sexual freedom, which led to the acceptance of adult ads into the pages of the newspaper.
By the late 1980s, an elite cadre of local freelance contributors joined this purpose, most notably David Steinberg, Carol Queen, Patrick Califia, Midori and Bill Henkin.
Also in the Eighties, staffers Miki Demarest, Kat Sunlove and Layne Winklebleck were instrumental, along with the ACLU and Californians Against Censorship Together (CAL-ACT!)
Perhaps spooked by the high profile legal fight and media coverage, Sebago, Inc., in 1987, offered to sell Spectator Magazine to the employees.
The event drew crowds and celebrity performers from all over the nation, raising some $6000 for three charities, Feminists for Free Expression, and Bay Area groups: Cal-ACT (California Against Censorship Together) and Cal-PEP (Prostitutes Education Project).
Spectator Magazine’s halcyon period spanned a few more years despite challenges, the most serious among them a law passed by the California Legislature in 1994 that established penalties for the distribution of so-called “harmful matter” to minors.
In 2002, seeing the writing on the wall for the imminent financial collapse of Bold Type, Inc, Winklebleck and Sunlove (along with several other shareholders) sold their shares of the business to Dara Lynne Dahl, an exotic dancer and prostitute, and W. Vann Hall, a photographer and amateur software developer.
Sadly, Dahl presented inaccurate information to Hall regarding the financial health of the company, and withheld critical data such as Bold Type's lack of business license and live corporate status.
Not one to balk at a challenge, despite being defrauded, Hall threw his talents and his money into an effort to return Spectator Magazine back to its halcyon days.
New staff were hired, community engagement was significantly increased, distribution and circulation rose, but the damages caused by the ineptitude of the prior management was too great to be overcome in a financially viable way.