Santa Ana Will End Deal With Publisher of City-Funded Magazine

Santa Ana City Manager Robert C. Bobb said Saturday that he has drawn up the necessary documents to “terminate” the city’s agreement with Dayle Thomas, publisher of Santa Ana Magazine, due to “breach of contract.”

Thomas filed for bankruptcy Friday in the wake of financial losses incurred by the fledgling publication that reportedly exceed $300,000. Several employees, including writers, advertising salespersons and the printer, say they have not been paid.

Thomas, who had published similar magazines in Glendale and Pasadena, was hired by the city to head Santa Ana Magazine, which issued its first edition in November.

The city’s contract called for Thomas to print city information--which in the past had been distributed to city residents through various smaller publications--in a slick magazine format. In addition, she was to publish a minimum of 100,000 copies a month and mail one to each of the 90,000 residential and business addresses in the city.

City officials began checking into the magazine’s status when Thomas published only 32,000 copies of the March issue. At the time, she said no more could be printed because “that was all the advertising revenue could support.” She could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Bobb said Saturday that he did not think residents have seen the last issue of the magazine. “I still believe the magazine concept is a good concept, and I will be requesting authority from the council to pursue another publisher for a similar kind of publication,” he said.

The city’s contract called for a maximum allocation of $300,000 to cover postage costs for the magazine’s first two years; city spokeswoman Laurie Cottrell said the first five issues had cost the city about $10,000 each. Bobb stressed that the city is spending no more to have the information printed in the magazine than it did on all the separate publications.

He said he has decided “absolutely” that the contract will be terminated since Thomas failed to abide by the condition that she publish 100,000 copies.

Bobb said the city will probably distribute information on recreation programs, expanded street-sweeping scheduled to begin in April and other city programs through newsletters and brochures until the magazine can be restarted.

“The critical need right now is to get out that information from our Parks and Recreation Department, especially with summer coming up,” Councilwoman Patricia McGuigan said. She said she and Councilman Dan Young, who comprise a council committee looking into the magazine’s status, will meet with Bobb on Monday to formulate a plan of action.

“I’m disappointed, of course,” she said, adding that the bankruptcy filing “came as a shock” and that the council thought Thomas capable because she had published the Glendale and Pasadena magazines (Glendale Today has since ceased publication). “We went into it in good faith and thought we had somebody who had experience putting something like this together.”

Bobb said he does not want to see a return to the old method of newsletters and brochures to disseminate city information.