Orange Coast Magazine Publicly Attacks Rival
By JENNIFER BELLANTONIO
Two Orange County magazines are in a coastal brouhaha.
Newport Beach-based Orange Coast Magazine is squaring off against Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc. and its Coast magazine in a bid to get its rival to drop “Coast” from its name.
The spat went public in an ad in the Business Journal last week. The ad was a letter to Freedom’s board of directors from Orange Coast supporters, who footed the bill for the full-page piece.
The letter reads in part: “As readers and as advertisers,in many cases of both magazines,we wish to express our concern that the increasing similarity that your magazine, Coast, now bears to Ruth Ko’s publication, Orange Coast, has created a level of marketplace confusion that can no longer be ignored.”
It goes on to “urge the board and management of Freedom Communications to eliminate the word ‘Coast’ from its magazine’s title and use a name that clearly differentiates it from its competitor, Orange Coast magazine.”
“We’ve been negotiating with them for over two years,” Orange Coast publisher Ko said of Freedom. “I’ve gotten very frustrated that they really aren’t coming to the table. I decided to take it public.”
Christopher Schulz, publisher and chief operating officer of Freedom’s OCR Magazines, which includes Coast, deferred comments on the issue to Freedom.
The media company, which bought Coast two years ago and also owns the Orange County Register, said:
“Freedom Communications is disappointed in the path Ruth Ko has chosen to publicly address her concerns regarding Coast magazine. Shortly after Freedom purchased Coast, we met with Ms. Ko at her request in November 2000 to hear her concerns about the publication and our purchase. We continued our discussions with Ms. Ko and in August 2001, in the spirit of seeking a fair and amicable resolution, we offered to modify our magazine’s name. In return, Freedom asked Ms. Ko to cease her unjustified public disparagement of Coast and our company.
“We have been moving diligently since then to work out details, and as reported in OCBJ’s OC Insider column, had been reviewing a settlement letter that reflected the understandings of the parties. Most recently, based on word from Ms. Ko’s counsel, we believed that we were within a day of signing a mutually beneficial agreement, resolving our differences. To our amazement, Ms. Ko raised new demands that fundamentally altered the basis of that resolution. Despite these demands, Freedom again accommodated Ms. Ko. However, Ms. Ko never responded and instead chose to place her ad in your June 10 issue.”
Mark Eissman, Orange Coast’s lawyer, said the two weren’t able to come to terms acceptable to the magazine.
“They weren’t going to take ‘Coast’ out,” Eissman said. “They were going to add another word or two to try and differentiate the name.”
More proposals followed, Eissman said. They included clauses that prevented Orange Coast from protecting itself from being copied, he argued.
Suing Freedom is another option,something Ko called “last ditch.”
“I wouldn’t refer to it as last ditch,” Eissman said. “We’d like them to do what’s right.”
The two magazines have co-existed for some time. Orange Coast is 28 years old and covers lifestyle, celebrities and style events.
Coast, previously known as The Coaster, has been around for decades and shortened its name around 1996. The two have grown more similar in some ways in recent years.
Ko said things got worse following Coast’s purchase by Freedom, which has stepped up marketing of the magazine.
“We get calls everyday on the switchboard about people who are confused,” she said.
The magazine isn’t toning down its battle cry.
Orange Coast is kicking off a new print campaign this week that tweaks Coast.
Ko, who said she discussed the ads with members of Freedom’s board of directors and Schulz prior to running them, called it a “value campaign” aimed at building the Orange Coast brand, which “has gotten a little lost.”
