Publisher Delays Debut of TV Listings Magazine : Periodicals: Costa Mesa company says November start-up will allow expansion to southeast L.A. County along with 800,000 Orange County households.

A publishing company has delayed the debut of its free television listings magazine so that it can expand its distribution to southeast Los Angeles County and Long Beach, in addition to 800,000 households in Orange County, a spokesman said Thursday.

Originally planned for publication this month, the guide won’t start arriving on doorknobs until the week of Nov. 3, said Kurt Lohse, spokesman for publisher Television Listing Co. in Costa Mesa.

Weekly circulation will be boosted to 1.2 million copies, 400,000 more than the original plan, he said.

The magazine, named TLC, was devised as an advertising medium to compete with the Sunday TV magazines in The Times Orange County Edition and Orange County Register, as well as magazines such as TV Guide.

By increasing its coverage area, the company is able to offer advertisers a wider circulation area while holding down its per-copy printing costs, Lohse said.

Already, more than $1 million in advertising contracts have been signed since sales began last month, Lohse said. “If we keep up at that rate, we should be right on target,” he said.

The expansion means that the 96-page, glossy-paper magazine would be published in 27 editions, up from 23 editions in the original plan.

Each edition’s cover will show the different channels of the cable company that serves that area.

TLC has dropped plans to circulate the magazine to selected hotels and will now concentrate on households.