What they don't teach you in J-school; Geoff Miller is one of the founders of Los Angeles magazine, so he knows what it's like to bring a product into being. His perspective has changed substantially as he's moved from the editorial side to publisher.

What they don't teach you in J-school

Geoff Miller is one of the founders of Los Angeles magazine, so he knows what it's like to bring a product into being. His perspective has changed substantially as he's moved from the editorial side to publisher

Geoff Miller likes to say that Los Angeles and its namesake magazing grew up together: Los Angeles magazine and Los Angeles have both gone through adolescence and are now adults, he says.

Miller, 54, has also grown up in the 30 years he has been with the magazine. He has moved from one of the founders and original staff members to its editor and, as of January, its publisher.

Miller said he has matured and come to realize that crusading journalism is fine but today it's probably more important to know how to sell and market a publication than uncover municipal corruption.

"I don't know whether that's good or bad but it doesn't really matter if you have a really wonderful story if no one's going to see or read it. They don't teach you in journalism school that the No. 1 job is to get the magazine read," said Miller.

"I'm in the communications business but I'm also in the marketing business. We have to sell our product and learn what it will take to get the magazine into people's hands," he said.

Los Angeles magazine has apparently been doing a pretty good job of selling its product. It turned 30 this year and is now probably the second-oldest city magazine in the country, behind San Diego magazine, but ahead of New York magazine, which is probably the country's most famous.

Miller, in an interview at the magazine's Century Park East office in Century City, would not disclose the publication's revenues or profits, but published reports have stated that it is one of the most profitable books in the publishing business.

And, at a time when many magazines are foundering because of falling ad revenues, Los Angeles magazine's fortunes are at least holding steady.

One Los Angeles publishing-industry observer said the magazine could be worth $50 million. Miller said that figure is probably too high but acknowledged the publication today is worth much more than it was in 1976 when it was purchased by the American Broadcasting Co. for $4 million. Today the magazine is owned by Capital Cities/ABC Inc.

The first issue of the monthly publication was 64 pages and the most recent one was 284, with a full-page, four-color ad selling for more than $10,000. While Los Angeles was hosting the 1984 Summer Olympics, the magazine's page count spiraled to about 500 pages.

"But that just got too big and people couldn't handle it. At the time we were running about 75 percent retail ads and 25 percent national. We've changed that and now we are about 40 percent national," Miller explained. "National ads are slicker and they look better and they bring in more revenues.

"Since then we have tripled the amount of our color pages and our ratio of editorial to advertising has evened out and it is now almost 50-50."

Before the change to more national advertising, the magazine carried between 55 percent and 60 percent advertising, he said.

But what is Los Angeles magazine and why has it been successful in a city that is more a collection of suburbs than a central city?

"When the magazine started, Los Angeles was just starting to come into its own," the publisher remarked. "It was almost as if it was in its adolescence because you have to remember that at the time Los Angeles was only about 70 years old."

Back when the magazine was started, Miller said, the city was searching for a clear identity.

"After World War II and for several years after that there was a tremendous boom here but people were moving into all the outlying areas and there was no central district," he recalled. "We wanted to bring the city together and tell people about all the options here. People didn't have a publication that would tell them what was here as far as careers, businesses, entertainment and recreation."

The magazine is still basically providing that kind of information, as well as stories about crime in L.A. and why the city is the last place in the world to build a subway system.

Those kind of news stories will not be featured with a cover photo. More likely, the cover photo will be of someone in the entertainment industry touting a new type of cuisine.

For instance, in the August issue, comedian and television star Bob Newhart is pictured on the cover promoting the magazine's annual dining guide, which Miller says is one of the most popular features of the publication.

Other entertainers who have appeared on the cover include Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Jay Leno and Priscilla Presley.

Though stories about crime or politics or Ted Turner's return to Los Angeles are given editorial coverage, they are not featured on the cover, said Miller.

"We do readership polls regularly and they show that our readers will read those stories but they will not be attracted to the magazine with those on the cover," he said. "A cover is more of a marketing tool than anything. Our polls show that our readers want stories about restaurants, health and fitness, entertainment and surprisingly, the history of the city.

"It's a service and lifestyle magazine. It's about the people who live here and how they live and where they live."

The magazine's readers are young, urban professionals -- in a word, yuppies.

More than 60 percent of the magazine's 172,000 readers are between 25- and 49-years-old and the average household income is $118,500. Almost 60 percent of the readers are married and better than six out of 10 of them describe themselves as holding executive, professional, managerial or technical positions, according to the magazine.

The magazine's readers, said Miller, are exactly the type of consumers advertisers are trying to reach.

Miller does not see himself as a booster of Los Angeles.

"Our magazine should not have to defend the city. I think our role is more to explain it and describe what's here," he said. "Los Angeles never has been a traditional city, and that is one of the reasons we think a subway system is not right for city. It doesn't have a real central district from which everything grows."

Like periodicals across the country, ad lineage is down this year at Los Angeles magazine by about 5.5 percent, Miller said. Yet, he noted, it has the highest ad lineage in the country so far this year, according to Magazine Industry Newsletter.

"Many magazines' lineage is down (by) double digits and many in the Northeast are down more than 20 percent," Miller said. "But what I think we have done right is see the diversity of the economy here. In the late 1970s, 20 percent to 25 percent of our ads were for real estate. We pulled away from doing that because of the diversity of the region and the potential diversity of our readers. And I think that has a lot to do with listening to your readers, which is something you do when you're an editor."