Local magazines founder on advertising slump.

Local magazines founder on advertising slump

September is shaping up to be a month of major changes in Los Angeles area magazine publishing, with some mainstays biting the dust and more narrowly focused periodicals taking their place.

The magazine business is not especially becoming a victim of the recession, but it's definitely in a state of transition. As advertising revenues continue to fall, magazines are shifting to subscriptions as their chief source of income and therefore are attempting to define themselves in ways that will attract more loyal audiences.

"It's a shift that's going to be happening in the '90s. The subscribers are going to have to pay more of their share," said Jack Bernstein, publisher of Client, a bimonthly magazine for advertising sales people in the publishing industry (previously known as Selling Space).

"All the industry is talking about how the world is becoming more fragmented and people are preferring magazines that are more specific," said Bernstein.

Major changes in the past month in California have included the demise of California magazine, the sale of its sister publications Angeles and S.F. to Goldstein & Associates of Los Angeles, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of LA West, the launch of L.A. Restaurant magazine in mid-August and the rebirth Sept. 3 of Buzz magazine.

Tom Aikins, publisher of the new L.A. Restaurant and the now-defunct L.A. Music Scene, said he expects his new publication to be successful because it is targeting a specific audience - restaurant lovers - and therefore is the perfect place for restaurants to advertise.

"There's no competition," said Aikins. "Our magazine is very highly focused. We write only about restaurants. We're not like food magazines. We don't want people to cook at home. . . . To weather the economic climate right now, (magazines) must have a narrow market. Our primary goal is to become the top advertising vehicle for restaurants."

L.A. Music Scene, which published for about a year and a half, went out of business in July because "nobody really makes any money with music magazines in this town, except BAM," said Aikins.

Steve Goldstein, who recently purchased Angeles and S.F. from the California Magazines Partnership (which went out of business), said the partnership's California magazine had too undefined a focus, but that was not the problem with the two magazines he purchased.

Goldstein said the city magazines simply had inflated overhead costs - large offices and 150 employees. Goldstein has trimmed that to 20-some employees, a few of whom he kept from the old staff and some new. The staff is operating out of Goldstein & Associates office space.

"In terms of format, there will be no changes. They have a very loyal readership and advertisers," said Goldstein. "In terms of efficiencies, we'll have less people and smaller space."

LA West publisher Bob Loomis was unavailable for comment.

Buzz, a trendy Southern California lifestyle magazine, was first launched last October, published three bimonthly issues and then went out of business last winter when its funding well went dry. Last April, the magazine secured capital from an Asian investor, said publisher Susan Gates, and the publication returned this month.

Gates explained that the original investor owned a software company and its stock dropped 82 percent in value. In April, the magazine closed a deal for $4.5 million in new financing from Manager Publishing Group, which Gates described as a $400 million, Bangkok-based firm owned by investor Sondhi Limthongkul.

"Many of our advertisers have returned," said Gates. "We're a very targeted, cost-efficient buy."

She said the average Buzz reader has a college education and a household income of $120,000 and falls into the 30-something age group.

Perhaps the ultimate narrowly targeted magazine for the recession, scheduled to begin publication next month, is the new Turnaround magazine - a periodical for businesses that are having trouble staying afloat and need to "turn their businesses around."

Publisher David Andrews, president of Stratagem Group - a marketing firm based in Rolling Hills Estates - said the magazine venture is "not an opportunity to make a lot of money," and he doesn't expect to sell much advertising, but Turnaround may help increase his company's visibility among firms needing its services.

"We have kind of an ulterior motive. We want to build a base of subscribers and build an awareness that we're available for turnaround services," said Andrews. "We will be losing money (on the magazine) in the first year. We're very pragmatic about it. We're looking to build awareness, so that in the future, when people think about turnaround . . . they think of us."

Although some news and business publications carry stories offering advice for those battered by the recession, Andrews said Turnaround will detail more specific case histories to help troubled businesses. Stories in the premiere issue will include "Increasing productivity with fewer employees" and "When to file - and when not to file - Chapter 11."

Meanwhile, Bernstein said other magazines with too specific an audience-appeal are attempting to broaden their focus. The key seems to be finding a middle ground. For example, Bernstein noted that a bicycling magazine recently decided to expand into an outdoor publication.

"Everyone focuses on these large consumer magazines that are going under, but the small ones are too. The little ones (to succeed) are broadening out," he said.

The other big trend, noted Bernstein, is toward packaging of media buys, both magazines as a group, and joint promotions between magazines and the broadcast industry.

PHOTO : Hard times: California and LA West

PHOTO : Making a go of it: Buzz, L.A. Restaurant