L.A. speciality publications adding advertising pages.

As the mainstays of New York's magazine business slog through a tentative advertising recovery, things are looking sunnier on the West Coast.

Publishers in Los Angeles, long an outpost for niche magazines, are finding advertisers clamoring for the narrow markets they deliver.

L.A.-based magazines, including the Robb Report, The Advocate and the Los Angeles Times Magazine, have seen double-digit year-over-year gains in ad pages.

The Times magazine, part of its 1 million-plus Sunday newspaper, showed a 69.5 percent gain in ad pages in March compared with year-ago figures, according to Publishers Information Bureau, a New York-based trade group that tracks the amount and type of advertising carried by consumer magazines. (Los Angeles magazine, circulation 153,284, does not report its ad figures to PIB.)

In the same period, PIB reported a 23.9 percent gain in ad pages at the Robb Report, a finance and lifestyle publication aimed at the very wealthy, and a 15.5 percent boost at The Advocate, a gay-themed monthly.

"The more narrow the target, the more likely advertisers are forced to recognize what a strong medium magazines are," said Rebecca McPheters of New York media consultancy McPheters and Co.

McPheters sees the upbeat mood at L.A. magazines--and the stumbling of general circulation magazines--as signs of the times.

Michael Blaise Kong, publisher of Angeleno, a 50,000-controlled circulation monthly, said that in the first four months of the year revenue was up 41 percent over the like period a year ago.

"Magazine circulation is broken," said Kong, noting that the delivery of a targeted market, which the bulk of L.A.-based publications do, is a more effective way to lure advertisers than blanketing newsstands. "Newsstands are a disaster, with more than half getting recycled," he said.

Ongoing turmoil

Brett Stewart, senior vice president and director of strategic print services at New York-based media giant Universal McCann, sees L.A. specialty publications performing well, as general circulation magazines struggle--and to some extent embellish their numbers.

"There's a lot of bravado right now," he said. "I don't see a turnaround with everything going on in the world."

Overall ad revenues for March increased 6.7 percent from the $1.76 billion reported in the like period a year ago, according to the publishing bureau. Total March ad pages fell 1.9 percent, to 20,497, from year-earlier levels. March marked the 10th consecutive monthly decline in ad pages, although the pace has slowed.

Stewart said large general interest publications would continue to see a shakeout, pointing to the sudden departure on April 13 of Suzanne Grimes, publisher of Conde Nast's Glamour for the past four years. Glamour plucked Bill Wackermann, publisher of Fairchild Publications' Details, as her replacement.

In March, the Publishers Information Bureau reported that Glamour had a 22.3 percent drop in ad pages over last year, while revenue fell 14.1 percent during the same period. Glamour's circulation is about 2.2 million.

By contrast, Joe Landry, publisher of both Out and The Advocate, said advertising booked for the June issue of Out will make that edition its biggest issue ever. The monthly publication is reporting a 52 percent increase in its June ad pages over the year earlier.

"Advertisers are increasingly understanding the value of this market, and they are getting more comfortable advertising as society changes its view of gays," he said.

Adding readers

Out, purchased four years ago by Los Angeles-based LPI Media, had paid circulation through Dec. 31 of 116,700, modestly higher than the year earlier. The Advocate had paid circulation of 107,600 last year, up from 106,000 in 2002. All figures are unaudited.

The same encouraging outlook is true for the luxury lifestyle magazine Robb Report, whose parent is Malibu-based CurtCo Robb Media LLC.

It reported March revenue growth of 29.5 percent over last year. Ad pages grew 23.9 percent to 85.50 pages in March compared with last year, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

In the first four months, Robb Report sold 334 ad pages, up 8 percent over the like period a year ago. "We have not experienced a slump in our business," said James Dimonekas, vice president and associate publisher of Robb Report. "Our reader is very much about quality and value, not about price."

The success of niche magazines has emboldened new ventures as well. Tribune Co., owner of the L.A. Times, late last year rolled out Distinction, a controlled circulation magazine targeting high net-worth Angelenos. (The publication has stumbled, however, going through two editors and a redesign in its first six months.)

Local Gains
March saw year-over-year increases on two
fronts. *

                      Advertising Pages   Advertising Revenue

Advocate                   15.5                21.9
L.A. Times Magazine        69.5                 2.7
Robb Report                23.9                29.5

* As of March 30, 2004.

Source: Publishers Information Bureau

Note: Table made from bar graph.