Former Time exec starting up L.A. magazine empire.

The purchase of Spin magazine earlier this month by Miller Publishing Group marks only the beginning of what company Chief Executive Bob Miller says will become a substantial group of magazine titles.

Miller Publishing is a West L.A.-based holding company that now owns two magazines published in New York - Spin and Vibe, the latter a joint venture with music and entertainment mogul Quincy Jones and TV producer David Salzman.

Miller. the former head of Time Inc.'s L.A.-based specialty magazine business Time Inc. Ventures, bought Spin with financial backing from L.A.-based equity capital firm Freeman Spogli & Co. Inc. - and more deals could be on the way.

"Freeman Spogli is very anxious to invest more money," Miller said. "They' didn't come in to just do the Spin transaction."

Miller's decision to leave Time after 22 years stems from Chief Executive Don Logan folding Time Ventures into Time's New York operations. The two differed over the value of new publications like Vibe.

Miller helped Jones launch Vibe in 1993, after the music impressario pitched the idea for a joint venture with Time. The new magazine, which focuses on rap music and black recording artists, had Jones and Salzman as minority partners and Time owning a majority stake.

Miller said the publication had some trouble getting off the ground. and Logan lost confidence in its growth potential. "I was absolutely convinced of the likelihood that Vibe could be a success. and that it could potentially be it huge success," Miller said.

Faced with the closure of Time Ventures and a feeling that there was nowhere else he wanted to go at Time ("The CEO's chair was currently occupied," he said), Miller decided to leave the company and purchase Time's stake in Vibe. The 450,000-circulation Vibe is believed to have turned a profit for the first time last year.

In early June came word of Miller's $42 million purchase of Spin - a 500,000-circulation magazine covering mainly alternative rock acts - from former publisher Bob Guccione Jr. Most of the funding for the deal came from Freeman Spogli.

Analysts have suggested that Miller may have overpaid for Spin based on its estimated earnings, believed to be in the 52 million range. Miller dismissed such criticism as wild speculation, and said that even without the efficiencies of scale from consolidating back-office operations, Spin would have been worth the price he paid.

Freeman Spogli's backing of Miller marks only the latest high-profile magazine deal between a venture capital firm and an experienced publisher.

Last August, Chicago-based investment bank Willis Stein & Partners LLC teamed up with former Hearst Corp. magazine head D. Claeys Bahrenburg to buy Los Angeles-based Petersen Publishing Co.: three months earlier, San Francisco investment firm Hellman & Friedman teamed with former Cahners Publishing Co. executive Robert Krakoff to buy trade magazine publisher Advanstar Communications Inc.

"I think these financial partners are realizing there are opportunities out there to improve magazines, to tune up operations and improve profitability," said Neal Vitale, now president of Petersen and one of the company's investors.

Vitale believes Miller is a capable publisher who has employed a smart strategy by acquiring two magazines that target a young male demographic - a desirable audience to advertisers.

"I'm not sure it's an easy demographic to reach, or one that stays with you for a long period of time, but it's certainly a legitimate position to take." Vitale said.

Miller said future magazine acquisitions are on the way, to be funded mainly by Freeman Spogli. And eventually Miller Publishing will likely launch its own new titles, possibly based in Los Angeles he said.

"In an ideal world. I'd like to do another couple of acquisitions before we move into startup mode," Miller said. "But things don't always work according to that kind of plan, because when you see a good idea, you've got to jump."

Miller said the company's next acquisition probably won't be another music-oriented magazine.

"I don't think one should limit one's horizons by subject matter," he said.