The parent company of Costa Mesa-based Riviera magazine is on the market.
Los Angeles-based Modern Luxury Media LLC, which publishes Riviera and 26 other regional luxury magazines, is shopping itself to potential buyers.
Modern Luxury has hired New York-based investment bank Berkery Noyes & Co. to handle the process. The magazine hopes to have details worked out by summer, according to the company.
“Given the level of interest in our company that has already emerged, we anticipate this process moving forward quickly with completion targets for this summer,” said William Cobert, chief executive at Modern Luxury, in an e-mail to employees.
According to sources, several undisclosed parties have expressed interest in buying the company.
Modern Luxury has gone through a rough patch that culminated in the departure of founder Michael Kong about a month ago.
Cobert, Kong’s replacement, has wrestled with $120 million in debt incurred in an expansion. Kong and his brother founded Modern Luxury in 1993 with a single magazine, Chicago Social. By 2007, they had nearly two dozen city magazines targeting upscale readers and advertisers.
Early on, Modern Luxury teamed with the late Roy Disney’s Burbank-based Shamrock Capital Advisors.
Shamrock sold its majority stake in 2007 to investors led by Beverly Hills-based Clarity Partners LP, with debt financing from Credit Suisse Group AG and NewStar Financial Inc.
The magazine has seen ad revenue decline but sees the market returning.
“The long dormant ad market is coming back to life,” Cobert said.
The company said May ad sales saw a 15% jump from a year earlier and that it has booked 2,175 advertisers for 2010.
No word on what the sale means for Riviera, which competes with Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corp.’s Orange Coast magazine and Irvine-based Freedom Communication Inc.’s Coast.
Hispanic Social Media
Even as Hispanic ad shops hold their breath awaiting Census results, many are seeing a need to get their clients into social media.
According to a study by the Florida State University Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication, Hispanics and other minorities visit social networking Web sites more frequently than non-Hispanic whites.
“Hispanics are embracing social media at a higher rate than non-Hispanics,” said Ingrid Otero-Smart, chief executive at Costa Mesa-based Casanova Pendrill Publicidad Inc., the Hispanic advertising unit of New York’s Interpublic Group of Cos. “They have embraced everything from mobile to Facebook at a much higher rate.”
Hispanics are turning to social networks to express themselves, connect with their culture and communicate with each other, according to the study.
“The way Hispanics communicate has changed significantly with the advent of technology,” said Anthony Trimino, president of Irvine-based Hispanic ad shop Traffik. “Hispanic consumers are very social by nature of the culture, and technology has only propelled that.”
The idea of social media in marketing campaigns may be old news for general market ad shops that have spent the past few years refining it for their clients. But it’s relatively new to clients with Hispanic ad campaigns.
“We’re always a little behind the curve because of the budgets we work with,” Trimino said.
For the most part, Hispanic marketing campaigns have used TV and radio ads to target consumers. Only in the past couple years have shops been able to reach out with billboards and Internet ads.
“It used to be that broadcast was it,” Otero-Smart said. “In the past several years, we’ve convinced clients to talk about other options. It’s still a bit of an uphill battle.”
Many shops have to change their clients’ misperceptions of the average Hispanic
consumer.
“Companies who aren’t based in a large Hispanic center seem to have this perception of this segment being poor or just manual labor,” said Eduardo Bottger, president of Tustin-based Al Punto Advertising Inc. “It’s something shops have to work with on a daily basis.”
Ad executives hope the Census results point out the need for companies to more effectively advertise to Hispanic consumers.
“It will be information not coming from ‘biased’ parties like Hispanic advertizing agencies and Hispanic networks that have a lot to gain, but from the federal government,” Bottger said. “We’re talking about information on 44 million or more consumers from a trusted government source.”
Jannard Buys House
Jim Jannard, founder of Foothill Ranch-based sunglasses maker Oakley Inc., is adding more real estate to his latest venture—digital movie camera maker Red Digital Cinema Co.—with an eye toward winning over Hollywood’s elite.
His latest move: buying a Beverly Hills mansion to serve as a place for guests.
Jannard bought the home for $19.9 million last month, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The home is roughly 7,500 square feet on 2 acres. A Jannard representative said the home is for guests of Lake Forest-based Red Digital, which is seeking to win over directors, producers and others.
The purchase is the latest in the past 12 months for Jannard.
In December, Jannard bought the former Ren-Mar Studios on Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood for undisclosed terms.
Brokers estimate the studio—now renamed Red Studios Hollywood—sold for $25 million.
Red Digital is using one of the stages to demonstrate its digital movie camera and for company events.
Jannard also plans to build a filming and manufacturing campus in Nevada.
