Parenting Magazines Do Battle : Publishing: A lawsuit is a sign of the intense competition to reach the lucrative market of baby boomers with babies.

Frank Dobrucki says he got into the business of publishing magazines for parents because he thought it was “safe”--non-controversial and, as he puts it, “wholesome.”

But now Dobrucki, editor and publisher of Valley Family Magazine and L.A. Family Magazine, says that his biggest rival, L.A. Parent Magazine, has made the business anything but safe for him and his C.D. Publications Inc. in Encino.

Dobrucki contended in a lawsuit filed May 23 in Superior Court in Los Angeles that Burbank-based Wingate Enterprises, which publishes L.A. Parent, has tried to put him out of business by encouraging--and even threatening--advertisers to get them to stop placing ads in Valley Family and L.A. Family.

Carey Bierman, L.A. Parent’s publisher, denies the accusations. “Come on, nobody does that,” he said. “This isn’t Chicago in the ‘50s.”

But the suit, which seeks an injunction against L.A. Parent and unspecified damages, is a sure sign of the intense competition to be the magazine favored by retailers and other businesses to reach upscale moms and dads. Each publisher says he doesn’t worry about what the other’s magazine is doing. But they surely compete: Both publish free circulation magazines--distributed in toy stores, children’s clothing stores, supermarkets and the like--whose only revenue is advertising sales.

The competing magazines both try to cash in on the raising of baby boomers’ babies. Along with articles, they print schedules of educational and entertainment events for children and run lots of ads for clothes, toys, camps, children’s movies and safety equipment such as pool covers.

The business has been good for L.A. Parent, which has been published for more than a decade, compared with 20 months for Valley Family.

But Dobrucki’s suit contends that beginning last September, Wingate set out to “drive” Valley Family and L.A. Family “out of business and to injure competition so that defendant Wingate would once again become the only participant in the market for family-oriented monthly magazines in Los Angeles County.”

According to the suit, L.A. Parent told advertising clients that Valley Family and L.A. Family “were going out of business.” The suit alleges that L.A. Parent also tried to coax advertisers with “rates that were substantially below their regular advertising rates, contingent upon such advertisers agreeing not to advertise in Valley Family Magazine or L.A. Family Magazine.”

Perhaps the most serious charge in Dobrucki’s suit is that Wingate encouraged its employees “to take whatever measures are necessary” to pry advertisers from L.A. Family and Valley Family--”including acts constituting threats, intimidation, fraudulent misrepresentations and other wrongful means.”

The alleged threats, according to the suit, included warnings that advertisers “would be put out of business” or “would be unable to remain in business” if they advertised in Dobrucki’s magazines.

Bierman of L.A. Parent denied each of the allegations in the suit. He also complained that because the charges are not specific--names and dates are not cited--it’s hard for him to respond effectively.

But Dobrucki and his attorney, Peter Aronson, refused to elaborate on the claims, saying specifics will come out later.

Bierman also said that Dobrucki had never brought up his allegations before the suit, a claim that Aronson denied.

“We’re totally perplexed by this,” Bierman said. “There was no indication of anything to come.”

Bierman and his brother, Jack, also publish Parenting Magazine in Orange County and San Diego Parent. According to Parenting Publications of America, a trade group, L.A. Parent’s 100,000 circulation makes it the biggest publication of its kind in the United States.

But Dobrucki contends that his two publications also have a circulation of 100,000.

The local parent-oriented magazines, along with their nationally circulated counterparts, are responding to an increase in spending on children’s products. From 1979 to 1988, for instance, U.S. sales of children’s products (excluding clothes and toys) increased 179%--to $1.95 billion--according to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Assn., a trade group.

That spending, which has created a lucrative surge in advertising, has mostly been fueled by baby boomers, who now dominate the ranks of parents.