Distinction Targets Upscale LA

In most major U.S. cities, you can't take afternoon tea without getting a publication that purports to chronicle "high society" in your face. New York City and its surrounding 'burbs have bushels of publications about the Astors and their ilk. Chicago has society titles a-plenty. Even Boston has a few magazines that keep a wary eye on the Kennebunkport and Hyannis Port elite.

Yet Los Angeles, the country's second-largest metropolitan area, boasts no comparable publication. Sure, there are plenty of magazines that attempt to sate the public's appetite for celebrity dirt, but there's no L.A.-based magazine that attempts to cover the area's well-heeled and socially minded citizens in a way that resonates with luxury advertisers.

Distinction, a bimonthly magazine produced by the Los Angeles Times' Angeles Publications arm, will attempt to fill this void come September. "It's not another magazine about celebrities," says publisher Jane Kahn. "I can't stress that strongly enough."

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Rather than sending a regimen of reporters to cover every press junket in the area, Kahn says Distinction will attempt to "go beyond the celebrity curtain" and cover the city's many influential philanthropists and socialites. Features about cultural events, architecture and design will likely find a home in the magazine; celebrity piffle clearly will not.

"Look at the landscape of publications in L.A. - they're all owned by companies not based in the area and they all assume that L.A. is about nothing but celebrities," Kahn continues. "You hear about the New York social world - Trump and Kempner and Astor - but you don't hear about the same people in L.A.. Not one magazine or newspaper in Los Angeles writes about weddings. I find that pretty amazing."

The title is starting small. Later in the summer, Distinction will be sent to around 50,000 households in the region, with an additional 5,000 copies directed to newsstands, upscale hotels and retail locations. "Our goal, in terms of circulation, is not to become a massively distributed magazine," Kahn says.

Ah, but will this limited (for now, anyway) ambition sit well with advertisers? Kahn obviously thinks so: "There's a very affluent, culturally aware individual who's not being served by anybody else." She is clearly banking that advertisers will want to get in front of what she describes as this "select" audience: one that skews slightly female, with household income in excess of $250,000 and home value in excess of $1 million.

So far, the formula seems to be working. Kahn notes that a handful of the biggest ad categories - luxury automotive, jewelry, travel and fashion - have already hitched themselves to the Distinction wagon; BMW, Cadillac, Harry Winston and Versace are on board for the first issue. Kahn also hopes, however, to include a significant percentage of high-end local advertisers.

"When I talk about our market position to [companies] in L.A., they get it," she says. "Plus the credibility of the LA Times organization is a big selling point." She notes that Distinction will be editorially distinct from the LA Times, though Angeles Publications will continue to report to the paper's advertising marketing division.

Though buoyed by the initial response to the Distinction concept, Kahn doesn't plan on quick expansion - and has told advertisers as much. "As far as out-of-pocket is concerned, we're a small investment," she notes. "I think luxury advertisers are looking for something like that, especially now."

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