• by Ray Schultz , December 6, 2022

Detroit-based Hour Media is unloading one of its city magazines and buying another one closer to home.  

Los Angeles magazine, which Hour Media bought from Emmis Corp. along with other titles five years ago, has been acquired by defense lawyer Mark Geragos, and Ben Meiselas, a civil rights attorney and social media entrepreneur. The purchase from includes Pasadena and Orange Coast. Terms were not disclosed. 

The buyers have formed a new company, Eugene Vision Media, to run all three publications. The existing staff will remain in place. 

Among other things, Geragos and Meiselas hope to create a larger digital footprint. 

“At a staff meeting earlier today, the magazine’s new owners said that after several years of shrinking budgets, they planned to invest significantly in the magazine’s journalism and expand its digital and social media presence, while also putting a new focus on live events,” the magazine reported on Monday. 

The magazine boasts that  Geragos and Meiselas are  “lifelong Angelenos,” and claims to be the first city magazine in America. 

In a move in the opposite direction Hour Media has acquired Indianapolis Monthly from Emmis, according to DBusiness.  

Hour Media acquired Los Angeles, Atlanta, Cincinnati and Orange Coast magazines from Emmis in a deal in February 2017.

The Indianapolis Monthly acquisition is “highly synergistic given our already strong presence in the Midwest and in the city and regional magazine business nationally,” says John Balardo, president of Hour Media, DBusiness reports.