MELTING POT

More than 20 years ago, when Sondhi Limthongkul was a student at UCLA, he decided he didn’t like the big city, and he left. Now he’s back. Two months ago, the 43-year-old Thai media mogul revived Buzz magazine, which met its demise in February. And, just for good measure, he bought the Frye & Smith printing company in Costa Mesa, where the magazine will now be printed.

“I was in my lawyer’s building on Figueroa, just about to sign the papers to buy Frye & Smith, when I looked out the window,” he says. “In 1965, I walked into every store, restaurant and business on that street looking for a job. I remember leaning on the wall, wondering what I was doing in the U.S.A.”

He soon transferred to Utah State University, where he received a master’s degree in history in 1974. He returned to Thailand and became managing editor of a progressive daily newspaper. In 1982, he started Manager, a monthly business magazine. Thailand was gearing up for an economic boom, and Manager took off. Limthongkul played the stock market, and now his companies, which include magazines, newspapers and printing houses throughout Southeast Asia, gross about $400 million annually.

“I’m a simple journalist who got lucky,” he says.

He hopes to bring some of that luck to Buzz. The bimonthly suspended publication when an investor pulled out after only three issues. One of Limthongkul’s staff brought it to his attention. At the time, Limthongkul was trying to buy United Press International. The deal subsequently fell through, but Limthongkul had already shifted his attention to Buzz. He flew to Los Angeles and met with editor Allan Mayer, publisher Susan Gates and president Eden Collinsworth. “They reminded me of myself 10 years ago,” he says.

Buzz may be only the foothold. “I’ll be doing a lot more publications in California if Buzz is successful,” he says, possibly including a weekly magazine for the L.A. Thai community and an international weekly Chinese newsmagazine.

As for Buzz, Limthongkul says he plans to have little or no editorial input into the magazine, which will be back on newsstands August 27. “It’s their lives. All I lose is $4 million. But they lose the chance to make themselves famous and rich. And you don’t get that chance too often.”