l-hahn/dt1st/mark2nd

L.A. Magazine Isn’t Relevant

In regard to the article “Better or Worse, Disney Seems to Like Los Angeles” (Aug. 30): Disney will continue to lose money at Los Angeles until someone realizes that the publication needs to redefine itself. I briefly served as associate publisher/director of marketing at Los Angeles in the mid-’80s. By that time, revenue was hemorrhaging because the publication already had lost much of its Beverly Hills boutique advertising base. And marketing research that we conducted confirmed the magazine’s increasing irrelevance to many desirable and potential readers.

Fifteen years later, the magazine still lacks meaningful advertising and readership reasons to exist. If the editorial content doesn’t become relevant to more than just upscale Westsiders, the circulation will remain too small to matter to very many advertisers.

Unfortunately, it’s become a coffee-table magazine that few read and that advertisers don’t really need.

DENNIS HAHN

President

The Marketing Dept.

Sherman Oaks