newsmaker/jas/4-14/mike1st/mark2nd

Scott Kramer is the kind of guy who likes to tell you what to do and where to go for a night out on the town.

Kramer, 32, has been named president of Buzz Enterprises, the parent company for Buzz magazine, Buzz Weekly, Buzz Books and Buzz Online.

“Whenever you need to know what’s going on in the entertainment area in L.A., you’ll find it in Buzz Weekly,” Kramer said, referring to the new spin-off of the monthly magazine that contains a calendar of entertainment events and chatty gossip about Hollywood.

Kramer worked his way from Chicago to Los Angeles, making the rounds at a radio station, an advertising agency, a newspaper and a competing magazine before joining Buzz last June as vice president of marketing and development.

“From the first edition in 1990, I was drawn to Buzz,” Kramer said.

He became familiar with Buzz magazine while working at the Los Angeles advertising agency Lord, Dentsu and Partners. A client of Kramer’s was one of the magazine’s first advertisers.

Kramer left the agency to join the marketing department at the Los Angeles Times, where he launched the Times’ first online service. After two years at the Times, Kramer took over as marketing director for Los Angeles magazine.

Kramer says Buzz magazine is now experiencing unprecedented growth. Although the magazine has suffered some management turmoil it lost both Publisher Susan Gates and Editor Allan Mayer last year Capell’s Circulation Report cited it as the fastest-growing regional publication in the country. Buzz also reports a 40 percent increase in year-to-date advertising revenues.

“The magazine is the core of everything we do,” Kramer said. “We really concentrate on the L.A. market; we are not going after a New York or national model of a magazine. I think that is making a big difference.”

Julie Sable