‘What do you want us to do, pretend we disappeared?’ : Fernando Award Poses Dilemma for Jane Boeckmann

When Jane Boeckmann won this year’s Fernando Award, a San Fernando Valley chambers of commerce honor for civic achievements, it created a problem for Valley magazine: How to play the story.

For, among other things, Jane Boeckmann is owner and publisher of Valley, a glossy magazine that chronicles the business successes, civic causes and social and cultural coming-of-age of the San Fernando Valley.

News like the Fernando Award, which was given in November, is its stock in trade. But would a big story look like boasting? Boeckmann said her instinct as publisher was to downplay the article. But she gave her editor, Anne Framroze, free rein.

Framroze did not flinch.

“How do you go about doing a story on your own publisher without seeming, shall we say, self-serving?” Framroze asked in an editor’s note.

She answered with a four-page spread in the November issue containing compliments from 41 friends of the Boeckmanns, elected officials and Valley businessmen.

It was not the first time Valley reported good news about the activities or business interests of the publisher and her husband, wealthy auto dealer, Los Angeles Police Commission member, political kingpin and philanthropist Herbert (Bert) F. Boeckmann II. Their name is pronounced BOCK-man.

Standard Publicity Fluff

Most of it is standard publicity fluff. Over a couple of years the magazine’s Newsmaker section has included photographs of:

Jane Boeckmann, a former Mother of the Year, posing with the organization’s board of directors (September, 1984).

Bert and Jane Boeckmann posing with sportscaster Ted Dawson at the San Fernando Valley Cultural Foundation Polo Day (November, 1984).

Bert and Jane Boeckmann receiving the Gold Angels award from Religion in Media (December, 1984).

Jane and Bert Boeckmann receiving the outstanding citizen award from the Valley Community Legal Foundation (January, 1985).

Bert Boeckmann receiving Time magazine’s Quality Dealer award, given annually by the magazine’s marketing department, on behalf of his dealership, Galpin Ford (April, 1985).

Bert Boeckmann, one of eight people selected, receiving the San Fernando Valley Arts Council’s Business in the Arts award (January, 1986). The other seven were identified but not pictured.

Object to Contrary Notion

The Boeckmanns bristle at the suggestion that the magazine is a tool for their self-promotion.

“What do you want us to do,” Bert Boeckmann asked in an interview, “pretend we disappeared?”

Some people think that is exactly what they should do.

James P. Kuhn, publisher of Boston Magazine, said that if he were receiving an honor and “I found out my editors were covering it in the magazine, I would instruct them not to.”

Bryce Nelson, director of the University of Southern California School of Journalism, said he was not familiar with Valley but would “feel better if publishers never had to report their own activities in their own publications.”

Steve Walsh, editor and publisher of Bakersfield Magazine, said he “gags” when he sees a magazine highlight the publisher’s personal activities.

Perhaps more seriously, at times the magazine has published feature articles on ventures in which its owning family was involved but without explaining the connection.

A series of articles in the early 1980s described the merits of methanol, a synthetic automobile fuel that received considerable attention during the energy crises of the 1970s.

A Boeckmann-owned company called Future Fuels of America planned to distribute methanol. In 1981 it opened America’s first methanol service station, an event recorded in the magazine.

‘Up to All of Us’

Future Fuels of America, an article said, “has taken . . . a first step into the awakening of America to the realization that this nation does have the means and capacity of reducing our dependency on foreign crude oil. Now, it is up to all of us. . . .”

The article identified Bert Boeckmann as co-founder of the company but did not say he was the publisher’s husband.

The fuel never caught on and the company is now inactive.

In March, 1985, an article, “Bullish on Buffalo Meat,” praised buffalo meat, which it said is lower in fat and higher in protein than beef.

The article quoted Ken Childs, manager of the Star B Ranch in Ramona, Calif., and president of the American Buffalo Assn., as predicting that “demand for buffalo meat will rise due to the fact that people want to take in less cholesterol.”

It did not disclose that the Star B is owned by the Boeckmanns.

The issue of February, 1986, carried a full-page photograph of Steve and LaVerne Ross and an article on the World Research Foundation they founded. The foundation gathers and dispenses information on non-traditional medical remedies, including light and color therapy, electromagnetism, visualization, homeopathy and sound and music therapy.

‘They Should Be Studied’

Declaring that these techniques have been “suppressed” by mainstream medicine, the article said the Ross’ philosophy is that “if any of these methods have a good chance of benefiting someone, and the methods are harmless, they should be studied.”

LaVerne Ross is Bert Boeckmann’s daughter, a fact not mentioned in the article.

Said USC’s Nelson: “I think that publishers of any kind of news organ have an obligation not to promote themselves or their own activities through that organ.”

Nelson said he would not categorically restrict publishers from writing about businesses in which they are involved but “it is an obligation to point out the ownership connections with the institutions they write about.”

Several former staff members said they were embarrassed by the frequency with which the Boeckmanns appeared in the magazine. One ex-editor said it was a constant challenge “to try to keep out as many pictures as possible of Bert and Jane.”

The Boeckmanns contend that it would be impossible for a magazine that covers the business, social and civic life of the San Fernando Valley to ignore one of the Valley’s most prominent couples.

Importance Not Denied

No one denies the Boeckmanns’ importance. They co-founded the San Fernando Valley Cultural Foundation to raise money for two cultural centers to rival the downtown Music Center. The organization is soon to launch its first capital campaign, and Bert Boeckmann has pledged to give at least $1 million.

Jane Boeckmann is a director of the San Fernando Valley Fair, a trustee of California Lutheran University, a director and major financial supporter of the World Opportunities International Christian charity, a director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, a past president of the California Mother of the Year award program and founder of the Boeckmann Charitable Foundation, which makes contributions to many Valley organizations.

Over the past decade the Boeckmanns have made political contributions totaling more than $1 million to many political candidates. They make regular donations to a variety of causes.

“It can get kind of funny because you’re always playing that game of, ‘If Jane wins the Fernando Award, do you exclude her because she’s Jane?’ ” Bert Boeckmann said. “We appear less in the magazine than we appear in any other publication, period. We exclude ourselves.”

Constantly on Guard

Jane Boeckmann said she is constantly on guard to keep herself and her husband out of print.

“If I were not married to my husband, I would have had two or three stories on my husband already,” she said. She has not, she said, because “it wouldn’t look right.”

It’s true that the magazine has run articles about businessmen who are not as publicly prominent as her husband.

“What’s black and white and read all over? The FOR SALE sign of Jerry Berns and Associates,” began one article on a Valley real estate broker.

A steady output of such positive stories combined with the magazine’s thorough listing of Valley restaurants, night spots and cultural events, and an occasional article on a tougher subject--such as the plight of the homeless, child pornography and rapid transit--has won Valley its share of accolades.

After a series of articles on crime and police work, the Los Angeles Police Department presented the magazine its Positive Press Award. In 1981 the Valley Press Club voted Jane Boeckmann Newsmaker of the Year for the magazine’s efforts “toward making the San Fernando Valley a better place to live and work.”

Although she professes to keep herself in the background, Jane Boeckmann has no reservations about her goal of promoting the Valley in her magazine.

Wants Good Image

“I wanted to see a magazine that had a good image, a clean, fresh image that still had a lot of style and sophistication and reflected the Valley as a wonderful place, as I think it is, and a unique place,” she said.

“Jane didn’t like controversy,” one former editor said. “She wanted to say nice things about people.”

In a joint interview, Bert Boeckmann, tall, strong-voiced and a touch impetuous, defended the article on his daughter’s World Research Foundation as a public service. The foundation is a nonprofit organization that the family has supported for the public good, he said.

He ridiculed the idea that the Boeckmanns would derive any financial gain from articles appearing in the magazine.

“How does that benefit us?” Bert Boeckmann asked. “We don’t sell buffalo meat up here.”

Jane Boeckmann defended that story as a service to the public by providing information on the superiority of buffalo meat. She said she was surprised that the Boeckmann ranch was mentioned and would not have wanted it mentioned.

The magazine’s methanol coverage had begun before the Boeckmanns got involved in the methanol business, she said.

Lacked Training, Experience

Jane Boeckmann conceded amiably that she began her publishing venture without experience or training in journalism.

“I just jumped in with both feet,” she said. She is fiercely proud of what she has accomplished.

When she and her husband bought the magazine in 1979, it was merely an advertising supplement to The Times.

With the goal of turning it into a vehicle for building a positive Valley image, she gave it a glossy color cover and poured money into a two-year advertising and circulation battle with a competing magazine in a market considered strong enough for only one of them.

With determination and money, she prevailed. Although the magazine lost money for several years, it moved into the black about 18 months ago and now regularly makes a profit, Bert Boeckmann said.

The magazine has a reported, though not professionally audited, circulation of 40,000, including 5,000 one-year subscriptions that are given annually to the buyers of cars from Galpin Ford.

Jane Boeckmann said she is proud of the positive reflection her magazine makes on the Valley.

“If I’m criticized for that, so be it,” she said. “I don’t think there is any area of the world that is quite like the Valley.”