Entertainment ink spreads coverage beyond the trades as papers prosper enticing readers.

Entertainment ink spreads coverage beyond the trades as papers prosper enticing readers

In what many consider the nation's largest entertainment community, competition is stiff for both trade and consumer-oriented newspapers. But that has not stopped them from proliferating throughout the Southland.

Covering the entertainment trades are two publications which have been locked in head-to-head battle for over 57 years, Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Both of them are read by much of the entertainment community.

Daily Variety has average paid circulation for the year ending June 1989 of 22,658, and The Hollywood Reporter had 21,258 for the same period, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations. Both publications sell for 75 cents.

While many executives subscribe to both papers, for both newspapers the goal is to be "the first read," said Hollywood Reporter Editor Teri Ritzer. "We're fiercely competitive."

Ritzer said that the Reporter, which ranges from 20 to 90 pages, has worked on improving its image as a source of hard news. "We are every bit as hard business as they are. . . . We would like to see a perception change. There may be a perception that we are less news oriented [so] we continue to put more insight into daily breaks with followup and beforehand analysis."

She also said that the size of the graphics and the paper's magazine format make it easier to read and find articles.

Daily Variety Publisher Michael Silverman said that his paper, which ranges from 12 to 100 pages, is the better for hard news coverage. "We're the daily newspaper of the entertainment industry. . . . They are a less serious publication, but that doesn't mean we don't take them seriously."

Daily Variety's sister publication, the weekly Variety, is based in New York, has a circulation of 30,000 and stresses national and international entertainment news.

Both Los Angeles papers, previously family-controlled, have upped the ante by selling ownership to corporate communications giants. Daily Variety sold out to to the Reed Publishing USA division of London-based Reed International in 1987, and the Hollywood Reporter to the BPI Communications subsidiary of Boston-based Affiliated Publications a year later.

"We saw the writing on the wall that media down the road would be dominated by the big boys," said Silverman, great-grandson of founder Sime Silverman. "If you were going to survive, you had to have a lot of money or someone behind you with a lot of money."

Both papers, while declining to provide revenue figures, said that they are profitable. A rough estimate of advertising, circulation and special publication sales yields at least $20 million in yearly revenues for the Hollywood Reporter. Silverman declined to offer an estimate for the Daily Variety.

On the other end are free, weekly consumer-oriented publications, including Los Angeles Weekly, Village View, Los Angeles Reader, Entertainment Today Inc. and several other publications.

The papers operate in the shadow of the Los Angeles Times' huge advertising dollar intake. "The Los Angeles Times gets the bulk of the entertainment dollar because they are so expensive," said Herb Salazar, publisher and editor of Entertainment Today Inc., a free weekly publication with a circulation listed at 125,000.

"A dominant paper in Los Angeles makes it difficult to go out and do a given view. Ads are being given away [by the smaller entertainment publications]," he said.

Another problem for entertainment weeklies has been the existence of large segments of the population who do not speak English and cannot be reached by such newspapers. "The ethnic mix makes it a real war zone in many areas," Salazar said. As a result the paper decided to expand out of the county, recently starting an Orange County edition and planning to start a San Francisco edition in September or October, he said.

One publication that has profited from the large immigrant Hispanic population in Los Angeles has been Variedades de la Guia, a weekly newsprint magazine with an audited circulation of 202,900 and an average of 48 pages per week.

The Spanish-language publication has television program listings, movie reviews, dating matchup columns and numerous reader participation items. The paper, which charges the most of any Spanish-language publication, has no serious competition, said Publisher Arthur Lerner.

"We're not really competing with anyone," he said. "About eight publications have attempted to look like us. They've followed what we've done. We're too busy to bother with them." Unlike most of the other entertainment and entertainment-driven publications, the paper is distributed at supermarkets, not movie rental and record stores. While refusing to disclose revenues, Lerner said that the paper is profitable.

The Weekly is Los Angeles' largest alternative newspaper, with an overall circulation of 160,000 and up to 200 pages weekly. While the paper eschews an entertainment label, 66 of a recent issues 160 pages were devoted to the publication's Calendar section, the most complete listing of entertainment events available in the county. "There's no question that the calendar and listings are very important," said Harold Meyerson, the newspaper's executive editor.

While its roots were in entertainment, the newspaper now reports on a variety of political issues in and outside of Los Angeles and boasts a stable of advertisers as diverse as Los Angeles. The paper, founded 12 years ago, edged out its most direct competitor, the 65,000 circulation LA Reader, in the mid-eighties, said James Vowell, editor and publisher of the Reader.

"The Weekly and the Reader in the early 80s were neck and neck," Vowell said. "They took off and we didn't. They were very glitsy. We were then and we are now taking a higher road of what we think L.A. is."

Vowell also terms his paper a general interest weekly newpaper, although 18 to 20 of 48 total pages in each issue are devoted to entertainment listings. He said that the paper earned $849,000 for an abbreviated financial year last year and projects earnings of $1 million to $1.2 million this year. Its distribution is centered on the Westside, with some distribution in the San Fernando Valley, Silver Lake and downtown.

The new publication on the block is the Village View, which was started nearly four years ago by four recent graduates of UCLA "who stumbled into the publishing with no prior experience," said Editor-in-Chief and co-owner James Sogg. "We didn't know what we were in for," he added.

The weekly newspaper, with a circulation of 40,000 on the Westside and an average of 36 pages, has steered its editorial content away from the detailed listings of the Weekly and the Reader toward more features and detailed reviews of all new film releases. The paper also features interviews with mainstream commercial entertainment figures and offers less political content than the LA Weekly.

Longevity is the Village View's strategy, Sogg said. "The main strategy in publishing is patience. [With it] you will persevere in the long run."

Like the Reader, the View claims it caters to an older, more educated and more cultivated audience than the Weekly. It has been profitable since its inception, Sogg said.

Entertainment Today's Salazar said that his newspaper differs in its concentration solely on entertainment. "We aren't interested in the obits or political scenes," he said. "If it's fun, we're involved with it."

The differentiation in the publications is notable in their advertising rates. The cost of a black-and-white, full-page advertisement are: $1,400 for the Village View, $1,398 for LA Reader, $2,000 for the Daily Variety and Entertainment Today, $1,850 for the Hollywood Reporter, $2,275 for Variedades de la Guia, and $3,601 for the LA Weekly.

PHOTO : Entertaining reading: Rows of newspapers lure readers.