Mike Halterman

Mike Halterman (born November 11, 1985) is an American LGBT journalist, currently affiliated with South Florida-based HotSpots Magazine. He was founding publisher of Out on the Town Magazine, which ran 20 issues from 2010 to 2012. . He was named to The Advocate magazine's 2012 "40 Under 40" list of people younger than 40 recognized for their involvement in the LGBT movement.

Halterman graduated from Pensacola High School in Pensacola, Florida and attended the University of South Florida in Tampa. Before founding Out on the Town Magazine, Halterman wrote for Wikinews, WTSP-TV in Tampa, OMG! magazine in Tampa, and the  Pensacola News Journal 's Bella and Home & Garden magazines.

Personal life
Halterman was born in Jacksonville, Florida and grew up in Middleburg, Florida; Atsugi, Japan; and Warrington, Florida. He graduated from the IB Diploma Programme at Pensacola High School in Pensacola, Florida in 2004 and went on to attend the University of South Florida.

He first joined the English Wikipedia in June 2004 and became an administrator in September of that year. Halterman organized the attempt to have Wikimania 2008 held in Atlanta, Georgia, but came in second place during judging to Alexandria, Egypt. He helped the Danish community put together their own chapter, which became an official organization by Danish law in April 2009, and was approved as an official chapter by Wikimedia Foundation on July 4, 2009. In April of 2012 he joined WikiQueer's Advisory Board.

After working his way up to editor at OMG! Magazine, he left in April 2010 to move back to Pensacola so he could help his mother care for her elderly parent. As of August 2011, he has relocated to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he ran Out on the Town Magazine through the summer of 2012. He returned to Tampa in February 2013 and his affiliation with HotSpots Magazine began in May 2013.

Professional work
Halterman interned with the Wikimedia Foundation offices as a public relations consultant during the summer of 2007, and was under freelance contract in 2008 for the Gannett Company, providing nightlife correspondence in the Tampa area. In 2009 he was hired as writer and later editor of OMG! Magazine, he also freelanced for the Pensacola News Journal, another Gannett property. While at ''OMG! Magazine'', he interviewed such entertainment personalities as Eden Riegel (All My Children), Lauren Koslow (Days of our Lives), CeCe Peniston (R&B singer, "Finally"), Jill Scott (R&B and soul singer/actress), Niamh Kavanagh (Irish singer) and Makeba Riddick (songwriter, "Rude Boy").

Out on the Town Magazine
He started Out on the Town Magazine in Pensacola in September 2010, the first glossy LGBT magazine to serve the Florida Panhandle, Alabama and Mississippi. Out on the Town also served Arkansas, Louisiana, middle Tennessee and southwest Missouri.

The mission of Out on the Town Magazine was to "give the GLBT communities in the Deep and Mid-South a voice via media that did not exist before. "

The magazine ran for 20 issues from September 2010 to June 2012.

Recognition
Halterman was selected one of The Advocate magazine's 2012 "40 Under 40" for his work in bringing LGBT media to a traditionally conservative part of the country.