Good reporting on Distinction in...

Kevin Roderick • July 23 2003 7:16 PM

...Women's Wear Daily. Distinction is the high-end magazine that the L.A. Times is launching in September via a new company that reports to the paper's ad department. (Past L.A. Observed posts here.) WWD says in its July 15 issue that some newsroom writers and editors are roiled because of the symbolic (at least) echo to the Staples Center scandal when the paper's ad chiefs signed a deal with the new arena to share profits on a special issue of the Times Sunday Magazine. The new magazine's publisher and letters sent to publicists have made use of Distinction's connection to the Times, irking some of the journalists.

"No matter how much [company executives] say it's a different company, it's under the aegis of the L.A. Times, the public doesn't understand the distinction," insists one high-profile features editor, echoing her co-workers.

Also creating discord is the Distinction advisory board, also listed in the letter, which includes the city's It players Kelly Werstler, Jacqui Getty, Tracee Ellis Ross, Cameron Silver and Tatiana von Furstenberg. [Silver] was at the couture in Paris last week covering the shows for Distinction, as reported. Asked about the fuzzy possibility of an advertising influence, two board members replied similarly: "How is that any different from fashion magazines?" Both added that they agreed to participate based on their friendship with [editor Laurie] Pike and her "journalistic integrity."

Pike, who used to write for the Times and magazines, says not to worry.

"Distinction is absolutely not an advertorial magazine. There has been no butting in from advertising as far as what I'm covering editorially. No one is coming in telling me `You have to put Louis Vuitton in the fashion story.' This is a real magazine. I have a very independent, journalistic background and I think people know it."

What she has been asked to do is stay away from Times writers. "My writers contribute to the New York Times and Vanity Fair," she continued.

"We're very serious about quality and integrity. Once you see the magazine, you'll know what it is and it's going to blow everybody away."

No story link -- I read it on a library database. It's the July 15 issue, headline Memo Pad: Timing is Everything...In-Distinction?, by Jacob Bernstein and Rose Apodaca Jones. Here's the WWD main page.