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Los Angeles Confidential
Lifestyle title from Hamptons publisher, sans sin
By Jeff Bercovici
Jason Binn is on something of a roll of late, having buried no fewer than three competitors in the last four months.
Now the budding mogul, who publishes Gotham and Hamptons magazines and co-publishes Miami's Ocean Drive, is set to test his good luck in a different time zone with a glammed-up new city title, Los Angeles Confidential.
Like Gotham, Los Angeles Confidential will target an audience of well-to-do urban hipsters.
"It's a lifestyle publication with a focus on fashion, arts and entertainment," says Binn.
The magazine, which debuts mid-March, will celebrate its first issue at the Miramax Oscar party in Hollywood on March 24. Miramax is an investor in Binn's publishing company. Its own magazine, Talk, folded in January.
The name Los Angeles Confidential comes from a series of sensationalist books in the early '50s purporting to give the real lowdown on sin in America's top cities and written in the hotted-up prose of the leading tabloids, such as the New York Mirror. The novel "L.A. Confidential," written by James Ellroy and inspired by the book series, became a movie in 1997.
Binn suggests that his magazine will seek to capture the style and spirit of the era, skipping the hard-knuckled noir.
"It's very reminiscent of L.A. in the late '40s and early '50s," says Binn.
The Oscar-themed premiere issue will have actress Nicole Kidman on the cover and contain interviews with Halle Berry, Judi Dench, Denzel Washington and director Robert Altman. Like Gotham, it will devote lots of space to party pictures and write-ups.
The magazine will publish two issues this year, one next month and one in September, with the plan calling for it to go into monthly publication starting next year.
The print run of next month's issue will be 50,000, with copies distributed free at restaurants, nightclubs, hotels, stores and Miramax events.
Free copies will also be sent to entertainment industry notables and other VIPs.
It's largely the same strategy employed by Gotham, which in just over a year has attained high visibility in its target market, thanks in no small part to Binn's ability to wrangle A-list celebrity talent for covers.
Gotham's circulation is 70,000, with 15 percent coming from newsstand sales, 10 to 15 percent from subscriptions, and the balance from free controlled circulation.
Freebie circ isn’t usually an aphrodisiac for advertisers, but Binn says the luxury marketers whose advertising dollars he courts are comfortable with the giveaway portion of his readership.
"That's the most complicated thing a publisher does, making the magazine available everywhere," he says. "For me controlled circulation has been very successful."
Even with its narrow focus on well-heeled readers, Gotham competes in an intensely crowded field, battling everything from New York magazine and City Magazine to Avenue and Quest.
The situation has eased somewhat since last fall, however, with the shuttering of two rivals: Manhattan File, which closed its doors in December, and Manhattan Style, which ceased publication after its September 2001 issue and formally went out of business earlier this month.
Manhattan File editor Cristina Greeven Cuomo has joined Binn's company as vice chairwoman.
Meanwhile, Hamptons Country, which competes with Binn's Hamptons magazine for summer readers in Long Island's East End, is also out of the game, at least temporarily.
M. Shanken Communications, which publishes Hamptons Country along with Wine Spectator and Cigar Aficionado, says it won't put out the title this year, although it hopes to return to publication in summer 2003.
Not that Hamptons will have the East End all to itself. A new title, Hamptons Country & Gardens, is set to begin publication in May, when Hamptons starts its summer run.
February 26, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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