New L.A. Rags Try Competing for City’s Riches

Everyone to your corners. The fight for glossy Prada ads is on.

Even though we enjoy being a girl, this is the kind of fight we like, which is fortunate because it comes around every few years. It’s the battle among magazines duking it out for advertising dollars in L.A., which can only mean one thing--new magazines.

After a recent dry spell for L.A. glossies, Los Angeles magazine is finally facing some competition. Flaunt’s debut issue is on the stands, launched by Detour magazine founders Louis Barajas and Jim Turner. Coming in September is Angeleno, an offshoot of the successful Chicago Social magazine, which promises to be a chubby chronicle of the good life, heavy on social coverage. And Southland magazine, produced by graduates of Architectural Digest, is slated for an April launch.

Of course, there’s room for everyone and blah, blah, blah, but it’s interesting that the new freshman class is all going after the chic-est of advertisers--Gucci, Mercedes, Chanel. Sheesh. You’d think people in L.A. had a lot of money.

We’re breakfasting at Hugo’s in West Hollywood with Barajas, who made his mark creating Detour magazine in his sassy 20s. Now that he’s an antique 38, his vision, as he puts it, is maturing with him, although it’s still edgy after all these years. Still, that means a few changes for Barajas. Less clubbing. Better omelets.

“There’s nothing worse than an overcooked omelet,” Barajas tells us, demonstrating exhibit A.

You can bet your copy of the March Flaunt, on the stands this week, that before our chat is over, Barajas will be the proud owner of a luscious, toothsome, perfectly gooey omelet. Now we see why his magazines rock.

There’s fashion, film, music, art, books, architecture and attitude.

“The idea in the new millennium is that you should flaunt who you are. You don’t flaunt your money. You flaunt good energy. Everyone has become so wishy-washy because they were so worried about being politically correct. You should let people know what you care about. Hey, this is my magazine. Look at it.

“I don’t see Flaunt as a Los Angeles magazine, but it [has] deep roots here, and I believe that L.A. is the city of the new millennium. New York is an incredible city, but New York has had its day. L.A. is on its way, considering the amount of movies, music and other influences coming out of here.”

Not to mention the omelets.

To be fair, we don’t think omelets were the lure for Michael Kong, publisher of Chicago Social, who’s hoping to replicate that cash factory in Los Angeles. But the Ventura-born-and-bred Kong is just as bullish on L.A.

“I looked hard at four or five big markets, and L.A. was the one I liked best,” Kong said over coffee at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. “The economy is incredibly strong, and it’s a big city of magazine readers. When you look at the subscriber statistics for national magazines, they’re huge out here. I think Los Angeles magazine does a very good job, but I think the market is much, much bigger than one magazine.”

Unlike Flaunt, which considers the zeitgeist to be its beat, Angeleno is designed as a coffee-table bimonthly just for Angelenos, and preferably the Cartier crowd. The magazine’s waterfront will include lots of charity events as well as fashion, night life, home design, food, travel, beauty and art--the kinds of pursuits we work so hard for, leisure.

Irene Lacher’s Out & About column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on Page 2.