Several publications have launched locally since the beginning of the year. Here’s a look at their progress.
RealTalkLA
The first issue reached newsstands weeks after its May 1 target date. Later, rumors of financial difficulties and the magazine’s impending demise prompted the company to release a statement confirming it had met payroll.
Folding the magazine “is not our expectation, but we are going through a re-organization,” confirmed Jay Levin, RealtalkLA’s chief executive, who also founded the LA Weekly. He said the next issue of RealTalkLA should publish in June.
RealTalkLA’s self-stated mission is “to unmask an L.A. many of us don’t know about and to do so for an audience whose needs are largely neglected by existing media.” These underserved readers are upscale minorities and second-generation immigrants.
To reach this audience a collection of disparate segments RealTalkLA editorial presents socially conscious messages with the slick photography and vernacular of lifestyle magazines. However, a coherent theme is not always clear. Profiles of “culture producers” and “cultural phenomenon” abound, snuggled next to a report on the L.A. housing market and a guide to techno gadgets. The magazine delivers on its promise of talk, as the editorial well fills to overflowing with Q & A-format; chats with minority aesthetes and do-gooders.
The advertising likewise features an eclectic assortment of messages. Socially relevant brands include Latino clothing label Palomita, a feminist art exhibit at MOCA, and the organic restaurant O of the Earth.
But there are also a few pages for liquor, SUVs and rock concerts. Whether there will be enough of these pages to support the magazine and its message will become clear in the next few issues. That’s critical because RealTalkLA distributes for free.
The District
As an alternative weekly in Long Beach, the District follows a well-marked formula of counter-culture editorial and plenty of consumer advertising. To succeed, this type of publication must match its style to the local market, and the District seems to have a good feel for it.
The editorial mixes political, historical and lifestyle stories, all anchored by some connection to Long Beach. The editors made an interesting decision to wrap their pulp weekly in a slick four-color cover, giving the product an upscale look at first glance. Inside, every page is four-color on far lighter stock than the cover making it feel more like a magazine than a newspaper.
Geography defines the advertising, with local real estate brokers, restaurants and tanning spas taking space. For a new publication, the District has a healthy ad roster, but in keeping with the alt-news market, many advertisers buy space as small as a business card.
At 32 pages, the District hasn’t the heft of a successful weekly. It lacks movie theater blurbs and a backend full of adult ads, the mainstays of alternative publications. But given time and its solid base of mainstream retail accounts such advertisers in Long Beach may have a District of their own.
Statement
The former Calabasas magazine has a new name and mission. With the announcement that the luxury lifestyle book had earned shelf space at Barnes & Noble stores across the nation, it dropped its geographically specific title and now calls itself Statement, with the tag line “It’s Who You Are.”
The editorial coverage remains unchanged. With a focus on Hollywood’s rich and famous, the camera goes inside the homes of Hal Holbrook and Michael Feinstein, while a black-and-white story takes the formula inside the 1930s mansion of Jean Harlow. Likewise, cover girl Carla Gugina offers an around-the-house fashion portfolio.
The clean design and first-rate imagery delivers a consistent message of self-conscious consumption. No under-“Statement” here. However, it’s unclear if the name “Statement” comes close to “Generic Magazine” for attracting a specific demo.
Despite the magazine’s national distribution, its advertiser base still centers on the western end of the San Fernando Valley. That leaves some big steps to go before the magazine reaches its strategic goal of establishing regional magazines around the country, each with its own advertising revenues. For now, the B & N; buyers add up to waste circulation for advertisers and a big potential downside for the publisher, given the levels of sell-through for today’s newsstand titles.
News & Notes
TG Publishing in Culver City, owner of the Tom’s Hardware Guide site, has launched the iRobot Create Challenge in conjunction with iRobot Corp. To enter the contest, fans buy an iRobot kit and build their own robot for fun or to perform practical tasks. According to Barry Gerber of TG Publishing, “readers of Tom’s Hardware Guide and grass-roots roboticists get to showcase their talents” while competing to win a $5,000 prize. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of the people who use vertical business-to-business search engines utilize Santa Monica-based Business.com, according to new research from Enquiro Search Solutions. The study also found that more B2B purchasers are using specific search engines. Veoh Networks, an L.A.-based Internet TV company, has signed content deals with several local companies, including Lions Gate, National Lampoon, and Billboard magazine (a unit of Nielsen Business Media). The new partners join other channels already broadcasting on Veoh, including CBS, Paramount Pictures, PBS, US Weekly, and United Talent Agency Online. ImpreMedia LLC, publisher of Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion, has purchased the New York operation of competitor Hoy from Tribune Co. Price and terms were not disclosed. Tribune, which also owns the Los Angeles Times, continues to publish Hoy editions in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Staff reporter Joel Russell can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 237.
