Santa Ana : City Weighs Future of Its New Magazine

City Manager Robert C. Bobb said Tuesday that he will meet with Dayle Thomas before deciding whether the city should retain her as publisher of the fledgling Santa Ana Magazine or contract with a new firm.

The city has contracted with Thomas to produceat least 100,000 copies of the monthly magazine for distribution to every residence in the city. Under the agreement, Santa Ana is to pay for postage costs but the magazine is to be otherwise largely self-supporting.

City officials are irked because Thomas has been able to print only 32,000 copies of the March issue of the magazine, which debuted five months ago. She blamed low advertising revenues.

The magazine lists city recreation programs and public services.

City Council members have expressed some disappointment with Thomas’ performance as publisher. A subcommittee of council members Dan Young and Patricia McGuigan is to study possible changes in the magazine, including a switch to bimonthly editions, distributing some city information in separate publications while pulling the city’s financial support from the magazine, and dropping the magazine.

Bobb said the city’s expenditures on the magazine are no more than the amount that used to be spent on smaller publications, such as recreation bulletins and a calendar of city events, which contained very few advertisements. He added that readership is much higher for the slick magazine, which he called an “experiment” that has been largely successful.