Miramax Will Back New L.A.-Centric Magazine

By CLAUDIA PESCHIUTTA

Staff Reporter

Miramax Films, fresh from its failed investment in the recently folded Talk magazine, is putting more money in a new publishing venture to debut this month: Los Angeles Confidential.

This time, the Walt Disney Co.-owned studio will only have a small stake in Confidential publisher Niche Media LLC and the magazine’s operations likely will be more low-key than that of Talk, with its high-profile editor, Tina Brown. Niche Media LLC also puts out Gotham in New York and Hamptons on Long Island.

Much of the content for the premiere issue of Confidential, an Academy Awards special, was recycled from a special Oscars issue that was being prepared for Talk, according to Confidential publisher Jason Binn. It will feature interviews with several celebrities, including Best Actress nominees and Miramax film stars Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench and Sissy Spacek.

Miramax spokesman Matthew Hiltzik confirmed that the company had a minority stake in Niche but would not specify the amount. Other investors include John D. Howard, a senior managing director at brokerage firm Bear Stearns, and Hamptons founder and chairman Randy Schindler, Binn said.

Miramax’s investments in Niche Media and Talk “are two very different situations,” said Hiltzik. Miramax Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein sought out a stake in Niche early last year, around the time Gotham was launched.

“Just because the national (Talk magazine) didn’t work…I don’t see why you would say, ‘Oh, I’m going to get out of the industry,'” he said. “We have a lot of faith in Jason. Period.”

Other ventures

Binn, the 34-year-old son of international trade magnate Moreton Binn, has been involved with Hamptons, Gotham and Ocean Drive magazines. Magazine consultant Sam Schulman described Binn’s magazines as “society papers that people read in order to get the local celebrity gossip and party pictures.”

“They’re done with a certain flair and a certain style,” he said of Gotham and Hamptons. “It’s style-driven advertising and the advertisers know that their customers are reading. Pictures of their customers are in the magazine.”

The second issue of Los Angeles Confidential, set for September, will include coverage of fashion and restaurants. It will also have “gossipy-driven insider stuff,” said Binn, who hopes Confidential will create “a buzz worthy of (the New York Post’s) Page Six.” Binn plans to make the magazine a monthly in 2003.

Unlike Talk, Binn isn’t looking for a wide audience, just an influential one. That’s because Confidential will have controlled circulation, which means most readers will get it free.

“By controlling our circulation, we control who we want to be reading our book,” Binn said. “My objective is to make sure everybody sees my magazine and to make sure it gets into the right hands of the right people.”

Binn plans to find those people by distributing Confidential at various hipster haunts around town. The magazine will also be available at local newsstands with a $5 cover price.

The first issue will be produced in New York by the staff of Gotham but an office with a small staff will open in Los Angeles before the second issue is published.

This is a tough time to launch a new publication. Magazine ad spending in the U.S. fell by almost 8 percent last year compared with 2000, according to CMR, an advertising and marketing research firm. Moreover, L.A. has become notorious for killing off local magazines including Buzz, California and L.A. Style. The only survivor has been Los Angeles magazine.

“We have seen controlled-circulation magazines come and go in this market for years,” said Alan Klein, president of Los Angeles magazine. “In most cities, the first-mover city magazine has always survived the entrance of these controlled-circulation publications.”

Binn said that the magazine, which has attracted the likes of Armani, Prada and British Airways as advertisers, would be profitable from its inception with a 50-50 mix of advertising and editorial in the first issue. Confidential will put out only 50,000 copies of the first issue and delay the second issue until September.

“This might be a one-shot (deal),” Schulman said. “If they find that it’s just not working at all, the fact that they’re taking a few months allows them to slink away.”