Churm Publishing Inc.’s OC Golf, LA Golf and SD County Golf magazines are becoming one.
A combined regional publication, Southland Golf, debuts this week, along with a new Web site, www.southlandgolfmagazine.com.
Southland Golf is available at some 600 golf courses, pro shops, practice ranges and some stores from Ventura to Palm Springs to San Diego. Churm plans to distribute 55,000 copies per month.
The aim of the combination is to expand the publication’s reach, said Rob Lyon, associate publisher of Southland Golf.
“We want to be the definitive voice for golf in the region,” Lyon said. “This broadens the reach for our readers and advertisers.”
Besides the name change, the publication also got a design facelift and an expanded golf lifestyle section that has features on cars, real estate, fine dining and resorts.
“Golf is a lifestyle,” Lyon said.
Newport Beach-based Churm Publishing and Southland Golf are part of the Orange County Golf Coast, which markets OC as a golf destination.
The company also works with the Southern Calif-ornia Professional Golfers’ Association, which includes golf course pro shops and golf specialty retailers such as Roger Dunn Golf Shops.
Churm and Southland Golf sponsor tournaments at Strawberry Farms Golf Club in Irvine and Black Gold Golf Club in Yorba Linda.
College buddies Lyon and Eric Marson, who worked at Fullerton College’s Hornet newspaper with Business Journal editor Michael Lyster, started OC Golf in 1994. They sold the publication to Churm Publishing in 2000.
Churm publishes OC Metro, OC Family, Inland Empire Family, Southern California Home & Outdoor and Metro Menus magazines with a combined distribution of 600,000 magazines each month. Churm Publishing also is co-owner of another Web site, click4teetimes.com, a golf reservation service developed by Irvine-based Macro Comm-unications.
We Used to Be Mini
Irvine-based Mini-Mailers, an 18-year-old direct mailer, has changed its name to MMi.
The name change comes with MMi’s expansion from small-scale direct mail to bigger projects with its digital color direct mail department, which handles printing projects from design to mail in one process.
Now MMi is offering Web to print services.
That allows users to design their own copy, add photos, upload to a Web site and submit it for printing and mailing, said founder William Rivera.
“We give clients the Web site and build templates for them,” he said. “Clients plug in their information and logos and they’re set to go.”
On the production side, the process saves time and reduces the chance of errors.
“The clients do their own editing before they send it,” Rivera said.
Canon Inc.’s copier division is among MMi’s clients. Rivera said he also gets a lot of business from print brokers.
The company employs 80 people locally and 70 in its Los Angeles office. About 60% of its business comes from OC.
“The Orange County market seems to be strong,” he said.
Boras Gets Nod
The Sports Business Journal’s annual list of the 50 most influential people in sports business included one entry from OC: Newport Beach baseball agent Scott Boras.
Boras ranked No. 29. The sports publication called him “the most powerful agent in any single sport” and suggested that only Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner has had a bigger effect on the market for Major League Baseball players.
In December, Boras negotiated the deal that sent popular Los Angeles Dodgers player Adrian Beltre to the Seattle Mariners.
No Los Angeles-based execs made the Sports Business Journal’s top 50. Walt Disney Co.’s Michael Eisner was included among a handful of “Titans of the Industry”,executives who influence sports but aren’t involved on a day-to-day basis.
Hotel Help
Independent hotels have struggled since 2001 to be seen and heard amid promotions designed to get travelers back on the road.
Some have formed marketing groups. Others hired management companies to help tout their hotels.
Newport Beach-based Hospitality Mar-keting Concepts hopes to extend those options. The company, which operates a travel and hotel discount membership program, is moving into the guest loyalty arena.
Starting this month, Hospitality Marketing is offering what it calls global hotel rewards.
The plan lets visitors build up points at hotels not affiliated with a worldwide rewards program.
For hoteliers,particularly independents,it provides a bigger pool of potential customers. Hoteliers will have access to all global hotel rewards members.
The program was announced at the World Travel Market in London in November.
Bruce Rosenberg, Hospitality Marketing’s executive vice president, said the company hopes to sign up as many as 200 hotels.
Hospitality Marketing provides consumer membership and database services to more than 1,000 hotels worldwide. In OC, Sutton Place Hotel and Laguna Cliffs Marriott participate in the program.
