Fairchild to Revamp Los Angeles Magazine

Fairchild Publications is apparently moving quickly to remake Los Angeles magazine into a lifestyle magazine with broader appeal by concentrating on topics such as fashion, the focus of its sister publications W and Women’s Wear Daily.

The first public step in that direction was taken Wednesday evening with the dismissal of Editor in Chief Michael Caruso, who joined the magazine just 14 months ago. Caruso said he first learned of his fate from a story in the New York Observer.

“What’s mystifying about it is I feel like I’ve done a very good job over the last year,” said Caruso, 35, a veteran of the Village Voice and Vanity Fair and New Yorker magazines. “Our newsstand sales are up 19% since I took over, and we’ve been mentioned all over the place.”

Los Angeles magazine has suffered an identity crisis in recent years. The magazine had been trying to raise its profile by producing hard-hitting stories, but Caruso’s firebrand predecessor, Robert Sam Anson, lasted only five months. Caruso’s moves to tap top-notch writers and photographers boosted circulation to 160,000 from 140,000, he said.

But Fairchild has apparently abandoned that high-brow strategy and decided to focus instead on traditional subjects such as fashion, said Caruso. His last day at the magazine is March 31, he said. Executives at Fairchild Publications in New York could not be reached for comment.

Walt Disney Co. gained control of Fairchild Publications and Los Angeles magazine when it purchased Capital Cities/ABC in 1995. Disney is expected to sell many of its publications--which also include the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Kansas City Star--but it decided last month to keep Los Angeles magazine and place it under the management of Fairchild Publications, which it also will keep.

That decision prompted Joan McCraw, president of the magazine since 1994, to announce her resignation last month.

Recent developments in the local magazine scene suggest the new strategy will not be successful, Caruso said.

“Fairchild doesn’t know the history here in L.A.,” he said. “L.A. Style went out of business [in 1993] and Buzz is doing very poorly as a lifestyle magazine.”

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Times staff writer Denise Gellene contributed to this report.