A New Volley in the War for the Westside

Demographically luscious West Los Angeles could become a magazine war zone.

Both Los Angeles and LA West magazines have recently fired warning shots at upstart Angeles--a 2-month-old entry from the publishers of California magazine--in a battle that focuses on the ultra-affluent enclaves within mortar range of the Pacific Ocean. The objective is to capture readers with household incomes of about $125,000, often more.

Each magazine, however, has its own tactical concerns about Angeles.

For example, Los Angeles magazine--the most widely distributed of the three--fears that the name Angeles sows puzzlement in the minds of its readers about which magazine is which. Los Angeles magazine also worries that Angeles will further blur distinctions by expanding its content beyond the current emphasis on interior design and architecture to include a broader editorial approach.

Los Angeles magazine editor and associate publisher Geoff Miller said his magazine recently sent a letter warning Angeles that “we are reserving the right to take legal action” if Angeles does indeed move beyond its stated brief as a “shelter book.” His magazine, Miller said, is “a more thorough life-style book.”

Moreover, he said, the name Angeles “clearly causes some confusion,” as evidenced by Los Angeles receiving mail meant for Angeles, as well as questions from readers.

This was news to Angeles publisher Perry Grayson. “I have not heard of anything from Los Angeles magazine,” Grayson said. However, he acknowledged that Angeles has annoyance potential. “There are a lot of people who would rather not have had us come out with this magazine,” he said. He added, “We’re not looking to be a clone of Los Angeles magazine.”

On another front, LA West has protested an Angeles promotion piece that claims an audited circulation of 75,000, meaning circulation is verified by an independent source and is not merely an act of wish fulfillment. Circulation is a crucial factor in determining advertising rates, among other things.

A Protest Lodged

LA West protested this claim to Business Publications Audit of Circulation Inc., of New York, the company that Angeles said had verified its circulation and that audits LA West’s circulation. Charles Wrixon, manager of internal auditing for BPA, said “we wrote to Angeles to immediately cease and desist” because Angeles was not a BPA member.

Grayson said the magazine had erred in the promotional material and has dropped the claim, adding that Angeles has applied for BPA membership.

While these incidents have been relatively minor compared with a no-holds-barred magazine shoot-out, the stakes are high in an era when more and more magazines are fine-tuned to specific audiences.

Free Mailings

The West Los Angeles audience is considered so valuable, in fact, that many of them are getting LA West and Angeles for free. Angeles was launched in September with a mailing of 66,000 free copies to Westside residents, while most of LA West’s monthly circulation of more than 55,000 is free.

As the new entry, Angeles is trying to establish an identity as the journal that covers “the visual side of L.A.’s cultural life,” according to editor Joanne Jaffe.

The October issue, laden with advertising for upscale “postmodern” home furnishings, includes features on hot L.A. architects, interior designers and developers, samplings of various spare interiors and City Snaps, a social column consisting of pictures and captions.

Angeles is trying hard to be different from other so-called shelter magazines, she said. The interiors featured in some magazines are “like rich, rich desserts,” she explained, “and the things I have chosen are more like sherbets, more cleansing to the palate.”

California Gets Heft

Meanwhile, Angeles’ older sister, California, has been putting on weight.

The current issue, 200 pages counting the cover, is the largest ever, said Grayson, who also is publisher of California. Estimating that the October number is “more than 10% bigger than anything we’ve ever done,” Grayson said it is also the first with more than $1 million in advertising billings.

The landmark month is the payoff for a number of initiatives, Grayson said. The magazine was redesigned earlier this year and now contains more editorial color and is printed on better-quality paper, he said. Other ingredients have been more promotion, including television advertising, and a push to increase the number of newsstands where the magazine is sold, he added.

It has also been more aggressive editorially, Grayson said. As an example, he cited the November issue, which will have an excerpt from the forthcoming “A Day in the Life of California,” the latest addition to a series of successful photo books chronicling activities in cities and countries. The 350,000-circulation magazine outbid several competitors for the excerpt, the publisher said.

California’s editorial director, B. K. Moran, also touted this month’s lead article, “The Gang That Couldn’t Smoke, Drink or Shoot Straight,” about the FBI’s Los Angeles office, and last month’s expose on the sleeping pill Halcion as other examples of the magazine’s aggressiveness.

A Global Approach

Beyond the confines of the Golden State, next week will mark the premiere of World Monitor, a monthly on global affairs from the publishers of the Christian Science Monitor.

The new magazine should be hard to miss on newsstands since its cover contains portraits of former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. What makes this notable is that the faces of the former chief executives are split down the middle to leave room for the cover headlines, including advice to the next President from Ford and Carter. Both warn that foreign policy is the major bugbear for any new President.

“Except under extraordinary conditions, the President can make unilateral decisions that change our relations with other nations, can ignore issues in other regions of the world or elevate them to top priority, and, despite some restraints imposed by the War Powers Act, can even commit our nation to irrevocable foreign adventures by injecting American troops into combat,” Carter writes.

Earl W. Foell, editor-in-chief, said the articles by Ford and Carter took some doing on his part. Although Carter readily agreed--and proofread his contribution by satellite phone link from Africa--Ford protested that he was too busy.

Foell, who knows both men, said he called to chide Ford, telling him, “I don’t like to talk back to former Presidents but we can’t take no for an answer.”

World Monitor seeks to fill a vacant niche in the magazine market, Foell said, noting that “many publications are turning inward” by concentrating on “people’s desires and hobbies.” He added that no magazine is “doing the global bit as such.”

Heading Into the 1990s

Even though there’s more than a year to go, evidence continues to mount that the 1980s are over, at least with magazine editors.

Not only have upcoming magazines such as Fame staked out the next decade as their turf, now two established periodicals are undergoing make-overs for the 1990s.

This week Time magazine managing editor Henry Muller announced that the weekly will undergo content and design changes for a “1990s approach to newsmagazine journalism.” The changes will make Time “fresher than ever, more accessible, more information-packed, more sophisticated and more entertaining,” Muller said. In effect, the changes amount to reinventing Time, he said.

Changes will include an expanded contents page, a new American Ideas section, a roundup of reviews by the magazine’s critics and the expansion of an experimental gossipy feature called Grapevine. The magazine also will contain two major new sections, Interview and Travel.

Also trying to steal a march on the ‘90s is Bon Appetit, which bills itself as “America’s Food and Entertaining Magazine.”

Changes in the October issue that prepare the magazine for the gustatory future include an increase in editorial content of about 6%, more features and color photography and a graphic redesign.