She Escalates Degree Into Magazine Career : Own Publication Rewards Efforts

What does a 41-year-old woman with a degree in journalism do when she can’t find a job?

She publishes her own magazine.

Seated at a small, cluttered desk in a cramped office which doubles for the Calabasas Chamber of Commerce, Madeline Williamson bemoaned the fact that she may have created a monster.

In the space of three years, her publication, Lifestyle, has grown from a backyard newsletter to a slick, full-color magazine with over 25,000 circulation reaching from Encino to Newbury Park in Ventura County. The magazine covers traffic issues, construction, freeway problems and the people of the San Fernando Valley.

All this comes from a woman who had a late start on the world of business and journalism.

“I’d been sitting it out for 20 years while my son and daughter were growing up,” Williamson explained. “I was so jealous of my husband. He would come home from work so excited. I wondered if I would ever get a chance to feel that way.”

Williamson said she worked odd jobs during the early years of her marriage. Her son had serious asthma so she could not devote too much time away from the household.

‘Couldn’t Leave Children’

“I couldn’t leave my children and take on the demands of a career. It just wasn’t in me,” she said.

Williamson said she has always been a people person and loves writing.

“I’ve always been a shoulder to people, and learned it was important to listen. People would tell me things.”

Several years ago, before starting college, Williamson took a series of interest inventory tests which showed she had a strong bent toward writing. After Williamson was graduated from California State University, Northridge in 1983, she could not find the editing job she wanted. She began to free-lance. But for this energetic and self-described ambitious woman, it just was not enough.

“I didn’t want to be a real estate agent or go to law school,” she said.

While she was free-lancing, Williamson began to look around her own community for somewhere to show her work. That was when the idea of starting her own magazine began to grow.

Local developer Lawrence Dinovitz agreed that it was a good idea and said he would support her with advertising. Dinovitz, an area developer for more than 30 years, used to ask Williamson to write press releases and articles for him while she was still attending CSUN.

‘Not Always Popular’

“Being a developer is not always popular with everyone, but Madeline has always been fair and honest with us and the public,” he said. “I was impressed with her integrity and wanted to give her a hand to help her get off the ground.”

Williamson started working alone in her garage, putting together 3,000 yellow paper newsletters.

“I had a crooked ruler and pages where nothing was lined up properly,” she recalled. “I learned everything from the printers. I would come in with the newsletter to be run off and they would moan and groan because it looked so awful. Every month I would get criticized, but I learned.”

By the end of the first year, Williamson said, she finally began to get it right.

“I did it all and learned along the way. I had so many people believe in me. Friends in business offered to write columns for me and the newsletter attracted more advertisers until it was big enough to become something else.”

From the “Calabasas Park Newsletter” (circulation: 3,000) to “Calabasas Lifestyle Magazine,” (circulation: 20,000), took about 18 months, according to Williamson. Today, Williamson charges $1,150 for a full-page ad and $625 for a half-page ad. Unlike many publications, she has always been in the black. “I wouldn’t want to have to eat off of it, though,” she jokes about the slim profits.

Some of the past features include: “Post-Holiday Girth Control,” “Flights to Nowhere--Hanging Around at 5,000 Feet,” “Pony Cross Farm--Harnessing Pony Power.” Advertising for real estate and developers is the mainstay of the publication.

Resident Comments

Calabasas Park resident Rebecca Weaver said she likes the magazine.

“It’s local. I can find out what is going on around here, but I would like to see it develop into something more . . . expand to include more events and features.”

Not all community residents are pleased with Lifestyle.

“It has no punch,” said one resident, who asked not to be identified. “I really don’t read it, but then I’m not very involved in this community either.”

But Barbara Reinike, a community relations manager for Lockheed Corp. in Calabasas Park, said she reads the magazine and thinks it reflects the area and aids her work at Lockheed.

“We are working on a good relationship with the community and reading the magazine helps.”

Lifestyle is not dependent on subscriptions and cannot be found at newsstands. The magazine supports itself strictly by advertising. It is distributed through a mailing house to all homes in Calabasas, Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills and businesses in Tarzana and Encino. Additional mailings will be made covering Bell Canyon and Newbury Park.

One of the problems Williamson said she constantly struggles with is trying to remain independent of her advertisers.

‘Was More Difficult’

“It was a lot more difficult when we were smaller and I had no one else to defer to,” she said. “Now I have an editor and if things get sticky, I just say the decision is up to the editor.”

Stephen London, 31, is that editor. He started his career as a free-lance travel writer for “Worldwide Destinations” and “Incentive Travel Magazine.” The only other staff member is part-time writer Ramyne Khan, 26, who will receive her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California in January.

The work is not always easy. London writes on a typewriter that won’t print “t’s.” For the October issue, Kahn was turned over to a Hollywood makeup artist and transformed into an extraterrestrial cat.

“All part of the job,” she said with a shrug.

In January, Lifestyle will take on a new look. There will be a new business section called “Western Corridor,” which will deal with the growing business and high-tech community emerging in the western San Fernando Valley.

“Business is fun and exciting and very much a part of our life style today,” she said. “We are not just a recreation and social publication. I can’t just stay a local, little community newsletter. I want to be more and break out of the Calabasas mold.

‘Not Just Playing Around’

“I’m not just playing around here,” she continued. “Some people may think I’m a dilettante, but this is serious business for me. I work seven days a week. The magazine is my entire social life.”

Asked what makes her work so hard, Williamson tells the story of how she got her first job as a 14-year-old Harlem youth. She worked as a nursemaid for an upper-middle class family in Rumson, N.Y., and it was the first time she had seen the suburbs. Williamson had to wear a uniform for the job and she said it changed her life.

“My husband and I both come from 133rd and Amsterdam, a German-Irish section of Harlem. Our parents went through Ellis Island, the whole bit,” she said. “I saw affluence and decided that was how I wanted to live.”

Looking perplexed over a new cover layout, Williamson said she had no idea three and a half years ago when she was hiring neighborhood kids to stick mailing labels on newsletters that today she would have a mailing house and feel like a queen.

Although the responsibilities of a publisher and editor-in-chief are restricting, Williamson remains excited about her work.

“Now I shuffle papers and balance the checkbook. But, you know, I’m dying to see where I’ll be in a year.”