<i> “Lifestyle </i> is a wonderful word. It says it all.” : Publishers Disturbed by Latest Lifestyle

The latest clash of Lifestyles in the San Fernando Valley isn’t rural vs. urban or rich vs. poor.

It’s Lifestyle magazines vs. Lifestyle magazine.

Two fast-growing Valley-based magazines with that name are about to be joined by a third in a race to capture readers, advertising dollars and the area’s elusive life style. And publishers of the first two Lifestyles aren’t happy.

“Everybody’s going to be knocking on everybody’s door. It’s going to overflood the market with the product,” moaned W. (Bill) Golding, editor and publisher of the first of the Lifestyles, the 3-year-old West Coast Lifestyle magazine published in Van Nuys.

“I feel it’s unethical. I feel hurt,” said Madeline Williamson, publisher and editor in chief of the 1 1/2-year-old Lifestyle magazine published in Calabasas.

The newest magazine is Valley Lifestyle, scheduled to start this summer with distribution to guests at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel. It will be published by Jane Boeckmann, publisher and editor in chief of the 12-year-old Valley Magazine, based in Granada Hills.

“Ours will have nothing to do with the others,” Wayne Adelstein, Boeckmann’s general manager, said of his company’s new publishing effort.

“It’s like Rolls Royce and Hyundai. Both are cars, but they’re very different,” Adelstein said. “The audiences will be completely different.”

Boeckmann’s Lifestyle plans were announced Monday. The disclosure followed the March publication of a legal notice that stated her company was preparing to use the Valley Lifestyle name.

The notice sent shudders through Golding and Williamson, who have had a truce over the Lifestyle moniker. After initial worries about the similar names, the two publishers agreed that they were targeting different advertisers and readers and therefore were not in competition.

But they feel quite differently about the latest entry.

Golding, a former newspaper advertising salesman, said he started his magazine in May, 1984, as a hotel giveaway called Los Angeles Lifestyle. He said he decided to broaden the name to the West Coast when the magazine started growing.

Now, he says, it is published every other month with a circulation of about 40,000, and is sold on some newsstands and distributed free at seven hotels and aboard planes of three airlines.

Golding’s Lifestyle sports full-color covers and is printed on slick paper. It features recreation news, movie star profiles, recipes, fashion tips and restaurant reviews.

Give him the money that Boeckmann’s firm has, and “I’ll put out a Rolls Royce magazine, too,” Golding said, referring to Boeckmann’s ad-rich Valley Magazine. “But,” he added, “I don’t mind fighting a lot of money.”

Williamson said she is also prepared to fight for her magazine, which was launched three years ago as a neighborhood newsletter in Calabasas Park.

“Why would they try to take me out?” she said. “I’m limping along. They have millions; I have three people working for me. What have I done? I’m barely surviving.”

According to Williamson, she began using the name Calabasas Lifestyle in November, 1985. As her magazine expanded and she began mailing it to homes in Woodland Hills and Hidden Hills, she gradually began de-emphasizing the word Calabasas on her four-color covers. Last month, Calabasas was dropped completely from the name.

The 20,000-circulation magazine is now mailed free to homes in affluent neighborhoods from Bell Canyon to Encino, she said. It prints travel tips, business news and feature stories on local personalities and companies.

Adelstein said the new Valley Lifestyle Magazine will be geared toward upscale travelers and businessmen staying at the 470-room Marriott. He said it will not be mailed to homeowners, although it could be expanded later to include other hotels.

It will be slick, like the 40,000-circulation parent Valley Magazine, and will print advertising and articles of interest to visitors, he said. “ Lifestyle is a wonderful word. It says it all,” said Adelstein.

Jon Loeb, manager of the Warner Center Marriott, said Valley Lifestyle will replace a visitors’ magazine called West Valley Style that is now given to hotel guests. He said Golding’s West Coast Lifestyle is not distributed at his hotel.

West Valley Style is published by Kathleen Bercsi, who is also editor and publisher of the monthly Warner Center News tabloid.

As for Golding and Williamson’s Lifestyles, they’re not sure just how they’re going to fight the newcomer. There is always the possibility of adopting a litigious life style--and asking the courts to settle the issue.