Small Community Papers Finding Larger Markets

You can find them almost anywhere--mysteriously slipped under your door while you sleep, or secretly stashed by grocers between the pickles and mayonnaise in your shopping bag.

Some consider them charming; others treat them like litter. Whatever their reception, community newspapers, commonly called rags, are gaining ground in the San Fernando Valley.

Each Valley community once boasted its own free paper, but most of them gradually died out when the city of Los Angeles annexed parts of the Valley.

The breed, many say, has the common genetic defect of a brief life span, folding and vanishing overnight. Some, like the Valley Vantage (formerly the Northridger, begun in 1949) and the Acorn, begun in 1974, have hung tough, still running such columns as “Dear Pastor Beamer,” “Pet of the Week,” “Feelin’ Fit!” and “Fishin’ Tips.”

But now several mainstays are expanding their circulation, and seven new papers appear to be on solid ground.

David Orenstein’s bedroom is typical of most teen-agers’: a twin-size bed shoved to one wall, a framed set of Olympic pins, prom photos, high school trophies and dozens of compact discs. But upon closer inspection, the room has, shall we say, certain William Randolph Hearst overtones.

Framed on one wall is a large white board with such headings as “Paid Ads to Approve,” “Paid Ads to Run,” “New Adv” and “Budget--$5,000!! needed.” A stack of newspapers sporting hot pink graphics lies just beneath a wall papered with layouts slashed with red correction marks.

Orenstein, 19, dressed in a navy blue suit and red striped tie, appears as crisp as the 30-pound newsprint his monthly paper, Valley Outlook, is printed on.

“I prefer not to sound like some upstart kid with great ideas who’s only been out for six months,” Orenstein said.

“People are genuinely impressed that we’re putting together a professional publication. But I’m just not one of those 50-year-old guys in an office high above the Trillium,” he said, referring to the Warner Center complex.

Working from his bedroom in his parents’ sprawling Northridge home, Orenstein, with the help of two friends and nearly $10,000, started his 16-page publication in March. With circulation at 25,000, “we’re making a little bit,” he said, adding that profits are reinvested in the paper, which is distributed in the West Valley.

Orenstein uses phrases that convey a sound business sense. His success is due to “a lot of sleepless nights” and because “we’re all perfectionists here.”

“If I don’t have the money, I shouldn’t be spending it,” he said, and maintains: “I want to be the best-read publication of any weekly publication in the San Fernando Valley.”

“He’s a solid kid,” said Rodger Sterling, co-publisher of the Warner Center News, distributed twice a month in the West Valley. Orenstein worked as a $50-a-week intern for Sterling’s publication in early 1988 before gathering resources for his own publication. “David is very talented. He’s keeping his cost down and circulation honest, so he’s going to do just fine.”

With firms that verify circulation charging around $150 a month, community newspapers rarely can afford the service. Publishers commonly lure advertisers with inflated numbers, several former editors say.

Revenue is usually kept under wraps, but larger publications, such as the Burbank-based L.A. Parent, with a circulation of 100,000, grossed $2 million last year, according to publisher Carey Bierman.

Community papers range from 12 to 96 pages and have few paid staff members, although some, such as the weekly Acorn, distributed around Agoura, have 25 paid staffers. Columnists are sometimes doctors, educators or writers looking for publicity in exchange for their copy.

At present, there are about 20 community papers in the Valley.

“Weekly papers are dynamite,” said Sterling, who said he recently added 2,000 to his Warner Center News circulation of 10,000 with the inclusion of Calabasas Connection, an insert targeted at Calabasas readership. “You get down to the gut level. When you want the curb in front of the school painted red, you do that with a good editorial.

“I think that the local papers act as a melding force for the community, something the heads of chambers and local businesses can gather around. And I live with these guys day in and day out. We become good buddies and confidants. It’s a personal kind of journalism.”

“Almost anyone can get in the business with desktop publishing and $12,000 to $14,000,” said Robert E. Page, former publisher of the Boston Herald and Chicago Sun-Times. Page plans to purchase several community newspapers on the West Coast. “Their success comes from controlled distribution. They’re free to the consumer and provide advertisers with total market coverage in a single community.”

Seth Barker, who bought the Acorn for $750,000 in 1988, said its advertising revenue thus far this year is 32% higher than last year. Other publishers said revenue has shown a slow increase during the past two years.

“They’re very well-received,” said Baker, former owner of Los Angeles Magazine and now owner of Beverly Hills (213), Newport Beach (714), the Newport Ensign, the Beach Reporter of Long Beach and the Palos Verdes News. “They’re growing because advertisers are taking advantage of a highly concentrated audience.” He said Beverly Hills (213), for example, “goes to the 50,000 richest people in the area.”

Advertising revenues are a paper’s largest income, priced at up to $2,600 for a full-page advertisement. But weekly papers may go through a court process that permits them to publish legal notices, fetching up to $150 per notice. The costliest aspect of publishing is printing, which runs up to $5,000 for a single run of about 25,000 copies.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who are looking to expand circulation to different areas,” said Doyle McDonald, part owner of Rodgers & McDonald Graphics, which prints 100 newspapers at its Carson location. “We’ve had five new clients in the last six months alone. There’s a definite increase in interest.”

Chronicles of social events have always been popular.

The Community Calendar is a recent spinoff from the Jewish Calendar, which began in 1985 and circulates 30,000 copies to 155 synagogues throughout Los Angeles.

The monthly magazines list calendars of events that are often kept as resource guides by readers, according to publisher David Epstein, 52. The Community Calendar, with a circulation of 16,000, is distributed in the West Valley. Epstein has plans for similar magazines aimed at readers in the east and north Valley.

Papers geared to special interests continue to proliferate. Frank Dobrucki recently jumped into the market with three ventures: Valley Family, Senior Lifestyle and Image, a tabloid due out in November geared toward Valley buyers of beauty supplies. The papers are distributed monthly.

Valley Family, a clone of the enormously successful L.A. Parent, begun by Jack Bierman in 1980, is “now making money, just this past month,” said Dobrucki, 29, who lives in Bell Canyon. The tabloid paper, begun a year ago, has a circulation of 30,000, Dobrucki said, and includes calendars for local events and features of interest to parents.

Senior Lifestyle, distributed in the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs with a circulation of 20,000, “took off like fire,” Dobrucki said. “There was not a magazine out there for senior citizens.” The key to a successful publication, according to Dobrucki and others, is finding the right concept, such as an L.A. Parent or Senior Lifestyle, for the right market.

Other Valley publications such as West Hills Life were born with the creation of new communities. The paper was started by Elliot Schear when West Hills split off from Canoga Park in 1987. Woodland Hills Life was created last year by David Mora, who recently purchased West Hills Life from Schear. The monthly papers hover around 15,000 in circulation.

Perhaps the most homespun of the bunch is Granada Hills Neighbor, begun by Jack and Marilyn Chapulis in their four-bedroom Granada Hills ranch home six months ago.

“We’re getting there; this is all still quite new,” said Chapulis, 38, who left his job as a Sears salesman and sunk $5,000 into starting the paper, which has a circulation of 5,000 and is distributed monthly in the north Valley. “I’m hoping to turn a profit in the next several months. At times I get nervous, but it’s a learning experience every day.

“I’ve just never done this before in my life.”