Buzz buy bickering
Detour cries foul in deal for mag's assets
While Los Angeles' $5.3 million bid for the Buzz trademark and subscription list would seem to make it the winner, the purchase agreement must still be approved by a bankruptcy court judge in a May 20 hearing. At that hearing, other qualified parties will be entitled to exceed the Los Angeles bid, in increments of $250,000.
If Los Angeles mag emerges as the eventual victor, Buzz subscribers will have the choice of receiving Los Angeles beginning in July -- the month after Buzz's final edition -- or a refund.
"We've been negotiating over the past few weeks literally around the clock," said David Neale, a Century City attorney representing Buzz, which has about 2,000 creditors that includes writers, photographers and other contributors. Neale estimated that Los Angeles magazine's bid, if approved, should cover Buzz's outstanding liabilities.
Surprised suitor
But John C. Evans, president and CEO of Detour, said he was not told during his own extensive negotiations with Buzz that Los Angeles magazine was also seeking Buzz's assets and that he was "shocked" to receive a call from a Buzz staffer on Tuesday saying the deal had gone Los Angeles' way.
"We gave them an offer on April 14," Evans said, describing a scenario that would have given Buzz's majority owner, Sharon Chadha, shares in Detour Magazine Inc., a publicly traded company, but no cash up front.
"We had already lined up financing, but we didn't finish negotiating," Evans said. "I was told I was going to hear from them last week, and then that they needed more time. They seemed interested. I'm very disappointed."
Detour, which has been publishing its flashy, fashion- and youth-oriented mag for 11 years, recently bought Milton magazine and had sought Buzz as another platform for a multi-publication company.
At Los Angeles magazine, publisher Liz Miller referred questions about its bid for Buzz to Patrick McCarthy, chairman and editorial director of New York-based Fairchild Publications, the magazine's parent company and a unit of Walt Disney Co. McCarthy could not be reached for comment.
Affluent demographic
The battle for Buzz's subscription list came about primarily because in its eight-year existence the magazine had attracted an audience with an average six-figure income, even though it had failed to pull in enough advertising to make it a viable proposition.
At the end of March, Buzz closed its weekly edition, which had been published for 18 months. "They were really making headway," said Richard Natale, the weekly's former editor. "If we'd had another year, we'd have been able to operate on an even keel. But the owners came to a decision that they just couldn't do it."
