Joie Davidow, the executive publisher of trendy...

Joie Davidow, the executive publisher of trendy L.A. Style magazine, says she’ll be stepping down in December, six years after founding the magazine. The upscale magazine was sold by tabloid L.A. Weekly to American Express in 1988. Davidow stayed on as both publisher and editor-in-chief, but now says she wants to move on to new projects.

She said that the parting is amicable but that “I’m an entrepreneur, not a corporate type, and it’s always hard to manage something when you’re not the owner.” She said she tried to create a reflection of California’s visual culture in the oversized pages of the magazine: “In New York you have to close your eyes to 50% of what you see on the way to work or you go psychotic; in Los Angeles, people have their eyes more open.” Staffers say the magazine may consider downsizing from its big 11-inch-by-14 1/2-inch size to save printing costs. Like most publications, including the recently closed California magazine, LA Style has seen a sharp drop in advertising, with ad pages down 20% from a year ago, Davidow said.