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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Glamour job moves from
one publisher to anotherPublication of Ala Moana Shopping Center Magazine is changing hands for the first time since 1994.
From Hagadone Hawaii Inc.'s This Week Publications, the bimonthly magazine will be published by PacificBasin Communications LLC.
The value of the multiyear contract was not disclosed.
"The change is going to occur in January," said Dwight Yoshimura, senior vice president and senior general manager of the center, owned by Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc.
"We have a new marketing team now and they're just evaluating our entire program and as a result, would like to improve the quality of what initially started as Ala Moana magazine."
The magazine is an option the center's merchants can choose as part of their advertising requirements, Yoshimura said.
Half a million free copies of the magazine are distributed annually "throughout Waikiki, at the Honolulu International Airport, on the four Ala Moana Shopping Center shuttle buses, in Downtown Honolulu, at the nearby convention center, on-site at Ala Moana Center and in Japan where the magazine is direct mailed to 3,500 Japanese visitors prior to their arrival," according to www.thisweek.com.
Distribution of the advertising vehicle had been a concern, Yoshimura said. "No matter what you do, it's how we get it to the customer that counts."
PacificBasin plans a new look and new distribution agreement for the magazine, according to President Floyd Takeuchi.
"This is a visitor-focused publication and we will certainly be maintaining a significant presence at the center and we have lined up a distributor to get good distribution," he said.
PacificBasin will sell advertising in and provide editorial content for the magazine. Kathryn Drury has been hired as associate editor for Ala Moana; she also has duties with Honolulu Magazine, another of PacificBasin's titles.
"It's very much going to be a fashion magazine with high editorial and design values ... it'll be very stylish," Takeuchi said.
This Week recently picked up the contract for the Whaler's Village Shopping Center magazine on Maui, so it will enter the new year with the same number of titles it has had this year.
Hagadone Hawaii Vice President and This Week Publisher Stan Mulkey declined comment on the transition, "but I would like to say that PacificBasin is a wonderful company and Honolulu Magazine has a storied and long history of fine publishing and we wish them all success."
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com
