L.A. magazine tightens up

Emmis Communications, which owns Los Angeles magazine, Orange Coast and Texas Monthly, is cutting salaries across the board by 2 percent, another sign of the times in the publishing biz. Also, about 40 jobs from the company’s publishing division are being cut - that's a 4.5 percent workforce reduction. Two folks from LAM were let go (other trims will be through attrition). Here's a snippet from the Emmis statement:

The publishing industry has seen a steady stream of staff reductions and expense cutting in recent months. We believe that the expense reductions we are implementing for the coming year are considerably more thoughtful and measured than what we've seen from many of our peers. Emmis Publishing employs some of the most talented people in our industry and is continually honored for excellence. We are very confident in the future of the city and regional magazine business.

Within the publishing division of Emmis, first-quarter revenues were $22.6 million, up from $22.2 million a year earlier. Emmis doesn’t break out the financials of specific magazines, but ad revenues at Los Angeles magazine are believed to be down a bit.
Radio revenues were off 1 percent - that's where some of the bigger problems appear to be. Here's a story from Folio and here's the Emmis earnings release.

FD: As some of you know, I'm a contributing writer to Los Angeles magazine.