Sea, Waterfront to Merge in Bid to Join Rising Tide of Boat Magazines

Once upon a time, in a very wet land called Seattle, a magazine was born to serve the needs of Western boaters. The year was 1908, and the magazine eventually took the name Sea. More than 70 years later, another periodical was born, this time in a slightly drier place called Costa Mesa. It was christened Waterfront, and its focus was on Southern California.

But all wasn’t happy in the land of Western boating, and a voracious little Waterfront began eating into the profits of the venerable old Sea, which had subsequently moved south to Los Angeles.

Not long after the move, Sea’s health began to fail, and Waterfront sailed in to rescue its precursor in aquatic journalism. Publisher Duncan McIntosh Jr. was at the helm. The year was 1985.

But the tides have turned, and come June, a newly vigorous version of “Sea: The Magazine of Western Boating for 80 Years” will swallow Waterfront whole. The upstart journal will sink into oblivion, except for special sections in Sea tailored to the Southern California boating market. By scuttling the smaller Waterfront, McIntosh said, he can navigate Sea toward a larger share of the Western boating market.

Although both magazines were operating in the black when the merger decision was made, “we’re running 40% ahead of last year (in revenue) with Sea,” McIntosh said. “Waterfront leveled out two years ago. At that time, we became our own competition. . . . We can’t be competing with ourselves.”

The moral of this story?

That it’s magazine eat magazine out there in the boating world--a highly competitive industry that generated sales of $16.5 billion in 1987 and is the focus of some 300 newspapers, newsletters and magazines nationwide, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Assn.

The center of the boating world--including its publishing side--is on the staid East Coast, where circulation-heavy magazines such as Yachting, Power & Motoryacht, Motor Boating & Sailing, Sail, Boating and Cruising World are harbored.

But McIntosh contends that the Western boating market is a sleeping giant, home to more wealth and marina to more big boats than any other region in the country.

Statistics provided by the National Marine Manufacturers Assn. show that California has more marinas--1,312--than any other state, and more manufacturers--234--of boat trailers, accessories and engines. It has more registered boats than any state but Michigan, according to the Coast Guard. And Orange County has more such craft than any county in the state but Los Angeles, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

Southern California in general--and Orange County in particular--are “meccas for boating usage,” said Greg Proteau, spokesman for the association.

Although California is home to more than a score of marine publications, McIntosh points out that the West is practically ignored by the Eastern yachting press, particularly the Big Six national boating magazines.

Recent statistics from Standard Rate & Data Services indicate that Boating has only 17% of its circulation in the 13 Western states; Cruising World has only 22% there; Motor Boating & Sailing, 14%; Power & Motoryacht, 17%; Sail, 22%, and Yachting, 19%.

In contrast, 72% of Sea’s subscribers reside in the West. Once its merger with Waterfront is complete, its circulation will rise to nearly 69,000, of which about 80% will be west of the Rockies, McIntosh said. Combined annual revenue of the two publications is about $4 million.

McIntosh’s mission now is to convince national boating advertisers that if they want to win the West, they can’t do it without Sea. The national magazines are fine, he said, but they do not reach a substantial number of Western boating enthusiasts.

“In the West, there are local, small tabloid publications in each harbor area,” said David Fales, advertising director of Motor Boating & Sailing, the No. 3 boating magazine with 141,436 subscribers. “But in terms of national awareness or advertising by national advertisers, Sea is really the only publication that comes to mind.”

Compared to its competition, Sea has had a long time to anchor itself in the minds of America’s boaters. The magazine was launched in 1908 as Pacific Motor Boat, so called because founder Miller Freeman forecast a dramatic change in maritime transport with the advent of the combustion engine.

In the early 1930s, a monthly called Sea began publication in Los Angeles. Freeman bought the magazine and moved it to Seattle, where he combined it with Pacific Motor Boat to become Sea & Pacific Motor Boat. The name was later shortened to Sea, and the magazine was sold twice and moved south to Los Angeles before McIntosh bought it from Petersen Publishing in 1985.

Such celebrities as Humphrey Bogart, Cecil B. DeMille and Mack Sennett sailed through its early pages, and writers such as mystery maven Erle Stanley Gardner contributed to the editorial content.

But the magazine was more than just a Who’s Who of the boating world; its pages reflected changes in technology, the flow of history and the ravages of war. The 80th anniversary edition recounts the following slices of boating life as seen in the magazine’s pages:

- 1918: The U.S. Shipping Board asks American men to help in World War I shipbuilding efforts. “The slimy German submarine has already sunk approximately 10% of the ships afloat at the beginning of the war,” the magazine wrote. “Think of it! Yes, one in every 10 has gone down before the devilish cunning of the Hellish Hun.”

- 1933: The demise of Prohibition brings an end to Coast Guard sweeps of the West Coast in search of rum runners.

- 1942: In a strong editorial endorsement of Japanese internment, Freeman encourages all Americans of Japanese descent to denounce the country of their ancestors. “Let the loyal drive out those who bring shame upon them by traitorous activities,” he wrote.

- 1948: Then-Gov. Earl Warren fires the starting gun at the Newport Ocean Sailing Assn.’s first Newport-to-Ensenada race.

- 1970: Newport Beach sailor Bill Ficker wins the America’s Cup.

In its 80 years, the magazine also endured slumps in the boating industry caused by the Depression, World War II and the economic uncertainty of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Between those lows, retail spending on boating rose unchecked. That consumer confidence is now returning.

“The early 1970s were considered the boom years in boating,” Proteau said. “There was a happy economy, plenty of fuel, people were getting more interested in recreation. A lot of those things are repeating themselves today.”

Industry experts contend that this rise in boating’s fortunes has spawned a corresponding increase in marine periodicals. Proteau estimates that the number of titles has grown to about 300 today from about 200 in 1986.

To Fales of Motor Boating & Sailing, that means the race for advertisers is increasingly tough. “I see the proliferation of titles rather than a loss of titles,” he said. “It’s extremely competitive. When we present our ad pitch to non-marine clients, they remark how competitive we are compared to the regular magazines that call on them.”

The industry boom also is reflected in the profile of Sea’s average reader--a man who seems destined to fulfill advertisers’ wildest dreams. The Sea man--and marketing surveys show that the average reader is most likely to be male--is 49 years old, has a college degree, has been boating for more than 10 years, owns his own home and 2 1/2 boats and has a household income of $88,000.

Chances are he’ll need to be that well-heeled, for he probably spends more on the care and feeding of his boats than many families spend on their homes. The average 35-to-40-foot boat, McIntosh says, costs an easy $200,000 new; slip fees can reach $500 a month, and then there’s insurance.

One of the goals of Sea’s new incarnation is to widen its readership beyond the corporate cruiser, to reach that part of the population who need to spend their potential slip fees on mortgage payments.

“We need some more new blood,” McIntosh said. “We’re very interested in getting entry-level people in here. The message we have to get out is that you can tailor boating to your income.”

While McIntosh insists that the coming merger will improve Sea magazine and increase profits, not everyone in the industry agrees that he can pull it off. One critic is David Poe, whose Huntington Beach-based magazine Santana focuses on Southern California and competed with Waterfront.

To Poe, Sea’s “macro-regional” approach--covering the 13 Western states instead of just the Pacific Coast--makes it difficult for advertisers.

“It’s kind of a weird hybrid,” Poe said. “Duncan turned it into a macro-regional. Then he merged Waterfront to it. We in the community are wondering what the hell he’s doing.”