Review Trying to Start Up Again : Struggling Arts Paper Has Ground to a Halt

Orange County Review, a weekly arts-and-life style newspaper that began publishing just 10 months ago, apparently has hit hard times.

The “alternative” tabloid newspaper was forced by a cash-flow problem to become a biweekly in late December and has not published an issue since Dec. 31. Several former staffers estimate the Review’s losses over the past 10 months at about $100,000--or $2,500 per issue for each of the 40 issues published so far.

Sources also said that the paper’s publisher, editor, and associate editor all have quit over the past two weeks, at least partly because they were not being paid.

But Gerald S. Papazian, the paper’s chairman and one of its largest investors, said Monday that the Review is “undergoing a reorganization” and denied reports that it is ready to fold.

The paper reportedly has paid some of the money owed to former top staffers and, according to Papazian, plans to recover by collecting past-due bills from advertisers.

“We have a consultant coming in and . . . have every intention of publishing within the next few weeks,” said Papazian, a Los Angeles lawyer and investment broker.

The consultant, Roger Sterling of Sterling & Associates, this week became the paper’s president, publisher and editor-in-chief. He could not be reached for comment.

When the Orange County Review first was published March 14, backers envisioned it as Orange County’s version of the very successful--and unaffiliated--L.A. Weekly.

The Review planned to distribute 50,000 copies of a 60-page newspaper free at about 600 restaurants, bookstores and record stores to “focus on the underrepresented . . . counter-culture segments” of Orange County life.

The newspaper initially was financed largely by Stephen Downard, former operator of a Silverlake bathhouse, and Matthew Hunter, president of Hunter-Korobkin, a Newport Beach-based communications agency.

Within a few months, however, Downard had pulled out and new investors had to be recruited. Meanwhile, the Review had difficulty attracting advertisers and was unable to collect for many of the ads that were sold, several sources said.

By late last year, the paper--which never had exceeded 36 pages per issue--was distributing 35,000 copies of a thinner, 24-page issue. And copies were being left at only about 400 locations.

Payroll checks bounced in November, and staff members were not paid at all in December, several employees said.

Papazian confirmed Monday that the tabloid’s fiscal problems stem from “not enough ad revenue brought in to cover expenses.”