L.A. city magazines hang tough despite recession.

Three slick publications inject bucks, adjust formats

Despite a recession which has killed off many magazines around the nation, Los Angeles still has three slick city magazines -- Los Angeles Magazine, L.A. Style and Buzz. Each has tinkered with its format, and they are spending millions to stay afloat.

Last week Buzz got a $10 million capital infusion from its owner, Sondhi Limthongkul, a wealthy Thai businessman who had invested $4 million to keep it buzzing last year. The additional funding will be used to allow Buzz to go from its current bimonthly status to a monthly beginning next March. Limthongkul also wants to use part of his investment to acquire other magazine titles in Southern California.

L.A. Style was relaunched in June with a new smaller format under the direction of Editor Annie Gilbar who is trying to broaden its appeal, which had been limited to the fashion aficionados. American Express owns the publication and industry observers say that the magazine needs to justify American Express' investment by showing advertising and circulation gains in a year or it could be in trouble.

Los Angeles Magazine has been around for 32 years and, with almost 157,000 readers in 1991, is by far the largest of the three. L.A. Style's circulation was 46,434 last year, according to Audit Bureau of Circulation statistics. Buzz is not a member of ABC, but its CEO, Eden Collinsworth, said it has 30,000 paid subscribers.

Cuyler Gibbons, an account executive with Warner Publisher Services, the largest magazine distributor in Southern California, said newsstand sales for all three magazines have been soft in 1992. Gibbons said Los Angeles Magazine is still the best seller of the three, Buzz hasn't had much of an impact and L.A. Style's smaller format has provided better newsstand visibility.

Advertising at all three has been clobbered by the recession. Los Angeles Magazine once ran 400-page issues monthly but now typically hits around 215. In 1992, it is off last year's advertising pages by 8.4 percent.

Los Angeles Editor Lew Harris said he is changing the magazine's focus which he admits during the 1980s was infatuated with wealth. Now the magazine is becoming more journalistic, Harris said. Recent issues tweaked the Los Angeles Times' coverage and harpooned the excessive power of Hollywood publicists.

Harris watches his competitors closely and is protective of Los Angeles Magazine's position.

The L.A. Style changes have made it more editorially similar to Los Angeles, industry observers say. But when executives at L.A. Style and Buzz report their advertising growing this year, Harris is skeptical.

"I don't think they (L.A. Style, Buzz) have hurt us," Harris said. "In this economy, Los Angeles can't support three city magazines. It couldn't support California Magazine, which went out of business after running with no advertising. Our advertising is far less off than L.A. Style and Buzz. I would not like to be growing the way L.A. Style is growing. They have lost their fashion advertising."

L.A. Style's ad pages in 1992 have dipped 34 percent but Publisher Holly Tennyson said fashion advertisers are coming back into the magazine, listing Guess, The Gap, Ralph Lauren, Susie Tompkins and Kenar as those taking out major ads over the next few months. Tennyson said the plan is to reach 125,000 in circulation in two years and to maintain the current $24 a year subscription rate and not cut it $12 as others have, she said.

Buzz Editor Allan Mayer said "the magazines that can remain standing at the end of the recession will do very well." With Limthongkul's deep pockets and apparent commitment to Buzz, the 2-year-old magazine figures to be around for awhile.

Limthongkul studied at UCLA in the 1970s and went home to Bangkok where he made a fortune in the Asian stock market. He has created business publications in the Orient and also owns a printing plant in Costa Mesa. He is a part owner of Global Media, Inc. in Los Angeles. Global is a media representative for domestic and international publications with billings of $40 million last year.

Limthongkul said competitors and advertisers are taking Buzz seriously. He said he turned down an offer of $6 million for Buzz from a major publisher whom he wouldn't name.

Limthongkul said he has decided to go monthly in 1993 "and then start to look for acquisitions in Orange County, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs so we can create a Buzz franchise."

Buzz is trying to take the literary high road, bringing in writers such as Jan Morris, Harlan Ellison and Edmund White in an attempt to be Los Angeles' version of Vanity Fair. The magazine started in 1990 but suspended publication after a few issues when it was refinanced by Limthongkul, who said he is not concerned with short-term profits but is investing in Southern California for the long term.