The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 44

LOS ANGELES TIMES TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1991 DS Displeased With California, Rohr Plans to Relocate Jobs Out of State California Magazine By CHRIS KRAUL SAN DIEUO COUNTY BUSINESS. EDITOR CHULA VISTA-Confirming reports that the company plans to move some jobs out of California, the chief executive of Rohr Industries said recently that the aerospace manufacturer would not locate in California if it were starting up today. Robert Goldsmith, who heads the Chula Vista-based concern, thus joined a growing chorus of California aerospace employers who have expressed displeasure with the high cost of doing busi ness in Southern California. High taxes, labor and energy costs combined with building permit delays have put Rohr's Chula Vista facility increasingly at a competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace, he said. "If Fred Rohr hadn't been born in San Diego, we wouldn't be here today," Goldsmith said in a' reference to the company's founder.

A former Boeing engineer, Rohr founded the company, a manufacturer of jet engine nacelles, rings and other components, in Chula Vista in 1940. Goldsmith said the manufacturer will reduce its payroll in Chula Vista by at least 500 over the next two years and to 5,000 "plus or minus 1,000" by 1996 as it moves some operations out of state. Goldsmith also said the company, which has 11,600 employees worldwide, will vacate a large but still undetermined chunk of its 185-acre facility in Chula Vista on San Diego Bay. Goldsmith said the final number of job reductions will depend on the economy, but he left no doubt that Rohr's long-term strategy is to move much of its labor- and ener gy-intensive jobs out of state. In recent years the company has built new plants in Arkansas, Texas and Maryland rather than expand in California to fill its growing backlog.

Business at the company has grown substantially since 1985 along with the huge upturn in orders for commercial airliners. Rohr's revenues grew to $1,078 billion in fiscal 1990 from $626.7 million in 1986. But most of the company's new manufacturing capacity has been added out of state, Goldsmith said, partly because the state's tough regulatory climate makes it more difficult for California manufacturers to get permits to build ner plant space to meet higher volumes of orders. Of Rohr's 11 plants, three are in California, seven are in other states and one is in France. "What California is heading toward is stability for people in jotjs regulating things and not for stability in jobs for people making things," Goldsmith said.

Goldsmith said the same plant that took seven months for Rohr to build in Arkansas would have ret quired at least three years to build in Chula Vista. Average total paid circulation (in thousands) 200 flS 150 r-Tf gj 250,569 1g SZ. '84 '85 '86 '87 '88 '89 '90 '91 Source: Standard Rate Data Service Los Angeles Times MAGAZINES: Shortage of Ads Continued from Dl formed of the decision Monday morning at a hastily called meeting at the company's Brentwood headquarters. "People are kind of in shock," one editor said. "It's all very sad." Joanne Jaffe, editor of Angeles, said she was especially surprised by the decision to fold all of the magazines, since Angeles, which covered local style trends, was doing fairly well.

"I felt Angeles was extremely viable," she said. "I'm shocked because it had so much life in it. It's tragic when something is that strong and well-loved to have it go under." Consolidated had reportedly sought a buyer for California and the other two publications for several months. People close to the company said no one emerged. Despite flashes of editorial brilliance and the input of a series of seasoned magazine publishers, California magazine never succeeded in finding its audience over the years.

Local advertisers turned a cold shoulder to the monthly in favor of more locally oriented publications. National advertising also dropped off after several local publications formed a consortium that offered special rates for national ad packages, sources said. Another problem was the magazine's frustrating inability to tap into the state's diverse population. Columnist Joel Kotkin said California magazine's ever-changing management was unable to develop a formula with statewide appeal, despite countless format changes. Geoff Miller, publisher of the ad-rich Los Angeles magazine, said California magazine's goals may have been too ambitious from the start.

"To try to find a voice in the L.A. market alone is a tough proposition," he said. "When you try to talk to the entire state, it's almost impossible." When New York editor Clay Felker created the magazine in 1976, naming it New West, the possibilities seemed endless. California was in the midst of a population boom and a pop cultural explosion, and Felker was riding high from his success at New York magazine. In its maiden issue, New West pledged to defy the popular notion of California as a land of "fruit and nuts," saying, "The endless chatter about smog, and cars, and oddball cults and Western civilization swallowed by Cowboy vulgarity" was "30 years old and pickled in aspic." Writers as diverse as Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion and Joe Eszter-has appeared in its pages, but the magazine remained in constant transition.

Control passed from Felker to Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch in 1977. Three years later, it was sold to Mediatex Communications which published Texas Monthly, and was edited by William Broyles Jr. Mediatex changed the name from New West to California. By 1983, however, Alan Bennett of Savvy and American Photographer magazines was at the helm. Ad revenues briefly surged under Bennett, according to Advertising Age magazine, before control of the magazines passed to Consolidated Press in 1990.

Broyles, who has since become a television producer, said the magazine's demise was not unexpected. "Fifteen years is a long life for a magazine in this day and age," he said. "I'm sorry to see a magazine die. I think California needs a general interest magazine like that. But given the ad climate, I'm not really surprised." Everything about the Mercedes-Benz 300 Class is built to last-except this special new lease offer.

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