Inauspicious debut for Tribune Co.'s upscale magazine.

When one of the biggest media companies in the U.S. launches a glossy bi-monthly aimed at the upper reaches of the economic ladder in the nation's biggest media town, a mighty splash could be expected.

How then to explain Tribune Co.'s foray into the luxury magazine business in Los Angeles?

Only seven months old, its Distinction title is already onto its second editor and bracing for a makeover. It also has been shifted within Tribune's corporate structure to allay any concerns about editorial control and widened its geographic coverage.

The controlled-circulation magazine has seen its ad count rise in the first four issues, but it remains an unknown quantity among many of the largest ad agencies in the city.

"I've not heard of it," said Gerry Rubin, president and chief executive of Rubin Postaer and Associates in Santa Monica. Steve Vye, the agency's media buyer for luxury car Acura, also said he isn't familiar with the magazine. "Zero," he said.

The stumble is notable given that Chicago-based Tribune, which owns the Los Angeles Times, has had a chance to tinker with the concept at its existing Long Island, N.Y. version of Distinction.

Jane Dalea Kahn, Distinction's publisher, denies that the start-up hasn't found its legs in a competitive Southern California market.

The magazine, which targets households with income of more than $250,000, "is doing great and it has met all of the financial goals outlined," she said.

Kahn said ad pages had grown 17 percent over the four issues, enough for it to stop offering discounted rates offered to charter advertisers. "This is very good for a new publication," she said.

There are 23 new advertisers in the latest issue, she said, including Barneys New York, LaCosta Resort and Spa and Kreiss Furniture.

Roughly 60,000 copies of Distinction are printed each issue, with 50,000 copies mailed, unsolicited, to some of the most expensive addresses in Los Angeles and Southern California. An additional 6,000 copies are being distributed to newsstands and upscale retailers, hotels and spas. Newsstand issues sell for $4.95.

Constant flux

Distinction got off to a shaky start last year with word that it would be published by Angeles Publications, a Tribune division that reports to the advertising and marketing division of the L.A. Times.

Sensitivities at the Times to the advertising/editorial relationship have been high ever since the paper's previous owner, Times-Mirror Co., struck a deal with owners of the Staples Center to share the $2 million in ad revenue generated by a Sunday magazine issue devoted solely to the arena. The editorial staff members who helped produce the magazine were not aware of the arrangement.

"Because of the sensitivities in the newsroom it was decided it would report into the Tribune," said Kahn. The old reporting structure implied that the editorial staff of the Los Angeles Times was responsible for publishing Distinction, which wasn't the case, Kahn explained.

The magazine now reports to Tribune Los Angeles Inc.--a new business unit that marks Angeles Publications' separation from the Times. Angeles also has plans to create other publications besides just Distinction--like a weekly geared toward Gen X'ers. "We've got some in the works but aren't ready to announce them at this time," Kahn said.

Better Job

The March/April issue is acting editor Gary Walther's first crack at running the magazine on his own--although he was recruited late last year to close out the third issue after start-up editor Laurie Pike left for Web site LA.com.

"I just got a better job offer to do something more interesting," said Pike. "I'm more interested in arts and culture of Los Angeles, not people over 45. It wasn't the best fit for me," said the 38-year-old Pike.

In an editor's note in the latest issue, Walther writes that the magazine had undergone a major makeover to refocus on themes it didn't capture well enough in the early going. These include greater emphasis on photography and "celebrating the civic-minded people who make Southern California a better place to live."

Kahn points out that the audience was broadened to include Southern California rather than the narrow geographic confines of Los Angeles. "Before, the product didn't deliver on its promise," she said.

Walther said he has applied for the editor's job but is waiting for word from Kahn and Angeles Publications President Holly Bowyer for approval.

"There is a real editorial mission here," said Walther, a freelance writer and editorial consultant specializing in luxury lifestyle topics.

"I don't do magazines to please the advertiser. I do it to please readers," said Walther, formerly an editor of Departures magazine and founding editor of Expedia Travels.

Pike said that during her brief tenure, there were just a handful of full time employees, including herself and two copy editors. The magazine, she added, was put together on a shoestring budget that tapped editing and art staff, and ad salespeople, from the Los Angeles Times.

Asked if Distinction has used editing staff from the Times, Kahn responded in an email, "Distinction does not use any resources from the LAT editorial staff." Some ad salespersons from the newspaper are used, she added.

Meantime, Distinction remains a mystery for many in L.A.'s ad community.

Besides Rubin, Warren Shaffer, print director for the Los Angeles office of TBWA\Chiat\Day, and media buyer for luxury car Infiniti, said he hadn't heard of the magazine.

"We should have seen it," said Shaffer when told that the magazine was launched in September. "We buy ads for Los Angeles magazine, so you'd think they would see our ads, and they would pitch the magazine to us."

Liv Eisman, a spokeswoman with Saatchi & Saatchi ad agency, said principals in the firm's media department were in the dark on Distinction. "We are not familiar with the publication," she said.