Publisher Buys 4 County Papers : Coast Sells Newport Ensign, 3 Others to Owner of ‘714’
Baker Communications Inc., the Beverly Hills publisher of two life-style newspapers geared to the rich and famous--Beverly Hills 213 and Newport Beach 714--has purchased four small Orange County publications from privately held Coast Media News Group Inc. for an undisclosed amount of cash and notes.
Baker’s chairman, former Los Angeles Magazine owner Seth H. Baker, said Tuesday that he purchased the assets and operations of the Newport Ensign, Irvine Today and Costa Mesa News, all weeklies, and the Orange County Entertainer, a 30,000-circulation monthly that highlights Orange County entertainment and night life.
Total circulation of the four publications is 80,000, three of which are delivered free. The exception is the 1,000-circulation Irvine Today.
While Baker declined to provide specific figures, he said the group’s flagship paper, the 38-year-old Newport Ensign, “did not have a history of doing well financially.”
Coast Media News Group is owned by Steve Hadland, Richard Bronner and Bob Payson. Bronner and Payson also own Coast Media Inc., a Culver City company that publishes six controlled-circulation weeklies in Los Angeles County. Those newspapers have a total circulation of 70,000 and include the Culver City News, the Rancho Park-Cheviot Hills News and the Inglewood News.
“It’s difficult for a small business like ours to be in two places at once,” said Hadland, co-publisher and chief operating officer of Coast Media News Group.
“At this point our efforts are better spent developing our profitable newspapers in L.A. County,” he said. Hadland will remain with the Orange County publications as vice president and general manager.
Baker said he believes the Orange County publications will mesh well with his existing publications. “With the ability to own both Newport Beach 714 and the Ensign, I feel we will be able to do very well in a very short period of time,” Baker said. “The main thing is that this area is one of the fastest-growing in the U.S. and one of the most affluent.”
Baker said a recent demographic survey of his Newport Beach 714 readers--residents from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach--showed that 55% of the households have a net worth of at least $1 million and that 46% have an income of more than $100,000 a year.
“We can go to an advertiser and say we literally have the richest audience in California,” Baker said.
The 52-year-old former president of ABC Publishing and Reeves Communications said Tuesday that he plans to change the 20-page publications to a tabloid style, beef up the Ensign editorially and provide more local news coverage and columnists.
There are about 10 employees at the four publications. Baker said he plans to add five or six employees to the staff and move down to Newport Beach in order to run the four publications himself.
“It’s not just a question of making money. I’ve got enough money,” said Baker, who sold Los Angeles magazine for $10.3 million in 1977, a hefty profit from the $500,000 he paid for it five years before.
A 1982 survey count shows Orange County with 41 papers --including 34 weeklies. The Orange County Register also publishes a series of free local weekly newspapers that are distributed countywide.
Hadland also refused to comment on the sales price for the Orange County publications. Kenneth Berents, a newspaper analyst at Legg Mason in Baltimore, said, “There is no question that demographically Orange County is probably the area to be in. Some of these shoppers are gold mines for companies.”
For 1984, Baker Communications Inc. posted a loss of $965,711, compared to a loss of $331,528 the prior year, when the company began operations. Revenue increased to $1.4 million from $185,481.
Coast Media Group’s Orange County Holdings
Name Circulation Published Cost Costa Mesa News 24,000 Weekly Free Irvine Today 1,000 Weekly $1 month Newport Ensign 25,000 Weekly Free Orange County Enterprise 30,000 Monthly Free
BAKER COMMUNICATIONS INC.
Beverly Hills 213 50,000 Weekly Free Newport Beach 714 50,000 Bimonthly Free
