Two icons of the local alternative press are launching two very different publications this month.
Jay Levin, who founded LA Weekly in 1978, has started work on a glossy monthly magazine called RealTalk LA along with the Web site RealTalkLA.com. The magazine’s first issue, with a free distribution of 250,000, will carry a May cover date and reach newsstands during the last week of April.
Meanwhile Will Swaim, former editor-publisher of OC Weekly, will debut an alternative weekly newspaper titled the District in Long Beach. Swaim expects to distribute 30,000 copies of the first issue on 600 newsracks with a cover date of April 11.
Although Levin’s project seems far afield from his newsprint roots, he said RealTalk LA would stick to the progressive idealism of his previous successes. Levin said that he’s hoping that through his magazine and Web site he can “reinvent the concept of a city magazine and create the next evolution of the local online community.” His ventures will target what he calls the “non-European demographic” of Hispanic, Asian, African-American and Middle Eastern people.
Specifically, Levin plans to deliver advertisers a diverse segment of affluent, college-educated minorities in the 25- to 49-year-old age category. According to RealTalk research, the non-European demographic has about 700,000 households with incomes above $75,000 in Los Angeles.
Levin faces a challenge in appealing to such varied ethnic groups. Planned stories he mentioned include a profile of business leaders working to improve the economic status of their employees or involved in community development, and a series on the relationship between minority youth in poverty and the criminal justice system.
That’s a far cry from the edgy fare that filled the LA Weekly during Levin’s tenure, which included investigative pieces on Scientology and the onset of the AIDS crisis.
“The overt, politically declarative agenda of the Weekly is not part of our agenda,” Levin said. “We are not trying to be the alternative newsweekly.”
RealTalk LA arrives as the magazine industry is stagnating. Last year total magazine advertising revenues increased 3.8 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, essentially keeping pace with inflation and postal rate hikes. While the Audit Bureau of Circulation reported that magazine subscriptions increased 2.2 percent during the last half of 2006, some high-profile magazines closed in that period, including Elle Girl, Premiere (the U.S. edition) and FHM.
Levin gravitated to the magazine format for both business and aesthetic reasons. A magazine can attract a broader range of advertisers national, regional and local than a newspaper, especially in such categories as automotive, financial services, apparel and telecom that Levin plans to go after. In terms of visual presentation, “the vibrancy and color of the city could be captured more readily” on magazine pages, he said.
“I’m aware that major old-line segments of the magazine industry are not doing well, but I’m also aware that magazine advertising went up about 4 percent last year,” he said. “Certain niche magazines and local and multicultural magazines are doing well.”
There is some skepticism among industry observers, however. A recent study from the City & Regional Magazine Association suggests potential weaknesses in a strategy of free distribution.
“In all cases, ‘free distribution’ publications prove to be significantly less well-read, significantly less-valued and significantly less well-known than paid or requested publications,” wrote consultant Charles Rodin, author of the study. “Despite the publicity surrounding the ‘free distribution’ titles in the advertising community, respondents in the affluent ZIP areas surveyed prove significantly less likely to be aware of them.”
Levin’s decision to re-enter the L.A. media market comes after a string of other projects. After leaving LA Weekly in 1992, he launched Planet Central Television, an early experimental independent cable network. After losing a few million dollars, it folded in 1997 and Levin moved on to start an anti-poverty organization called Share With the Other L.A., and got involved plans for a Web site called GetHelp.org, which was never launched. He also developed a private practice in “spiritual psychology.”
He felt inspired to get back into publishing because of its ability “to reveal the real culture.” Just as LA Weekly chronicled the counterculture scene, RealTalk LA will define the multi-ethnic culture of 21st century Los Angeles.
The title’s “real talk” promise will come to life on its Web site. Users will be able to blog, chat or share video, all with an L.A. focus. “Everything on the site will be targeted based on geography,” said Sridhar Rao, president of RealTalk digital.
Online advertising will feature the same brands that buy in the print publication. The site will launch in conjunction with the magazine’s first issue and has an eventual goal of 800,000 unique visitors per month.
Swaim’s Way
Unlike Levin, Swaim plans to replicate his previous success in a new location. He calls Long Beach the largest city in the U.S. without an alternative weekly, and he sees it as the perfect market for his product.
Relatively low real estate prices have brought a wave of young professionals to Long Beach from Orange County and other areas of Los Angeles, according to Swaim. Better yet, Long Beach has the identity of a self-contained city a rarity in Southern California.
In 1998, Swaim wrote a business plan for a Long Beach weekly at the request of his bosses at Stern Publishing, which owned OC Weekly. The company passed on the idea because of other concerns. Two years later the company changed its name to Village Voice Media and later to New Times, the present owner of both the LA Weekly and OC Weekly.
Swaim refers to those two publications as editorial models for the District. He wants investigative journalism and plenty of humor, because even the alternative press takes itself far too serious, he said.
As for a political agenda, “this won’t be a knee-jerk lefty paper,” Swaim promised. “I’m just looking for great stories and Long Beach has them in abundance.”
The District hopes to have 20 advertisers in its first issue, dominated by the usual alternative advertisers: bars, concert venues, tanning spas and retailers. For national accounts, the paper will work through the Alternative Weekly Network, the ad-selling arm of the trade group Association of Alternative Newspapers. Swaim believes his readership will span college-age kids up to people in their 50s and 60s, with the target demo in the low 30s.
Both Swaim and Levin financed their ventures by tapping individual investors, and both expect to break even within the first year. But as freebie publications, they face daunting competition for advertising dollars from behemoths such as the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register and Los Angeles magazine.
“This is media everybody is out there competing for the pool of ad dollars,” Levin concluded. “But L.A.’s a big community and there are billions of dollars spent on advertising. Media that’s relevant to its audience always finds support.”
