Los Angeles Times - 07.09.2019

stages. In 1979, when he was 12, his family

fled revolution-torn Iran, resettling on

Long Island. After graduating from New

York University and launching a gay

weekly, QW, he readily earned a reputa-

tion as an “editorial boy wonder” (per the

New York Observer), serving as deputy

editor of New York magazine; editorial di-

rector of Talk, the short-lived glossy cre-

ated by Tina Brown; and founding editor

of Radar, a dishy magazine and website

that tracked the zeitgeist of the aughts

with stories on Damien Hirst and “toxic

bachelors.” Somewhere along the way,

Roshan, like Brown, became a story him-

self, his comings and goings clocked in

gossip columns such as Page Six.

In 2008 — after a rocky publishing his-

tory and a succession of volatile owners in-

cluding Jeffrey Epstein — Radar folded.

Roshan, who said at lunch that he had re-

cently fielded “a million calls” from report-

ers regarding his ties to Epstein, believes

that early reports of the financier’s sexual

proclivities prompted Epstein’s co-in-

vestor, Mort Zuckerman, to pull his sup-

port from Radar in 2005. He started to de-

scribe a visit to Epstein’s “dark and surre-

al” townhouse on the Upper East Side.

But Spencer, the Mayfair’s catering man-

ager, had arrived to take us on a less

spooky tour.

We rode an elevator to the second floor

to view the hotel’s art gallery, curated by

the graffiti artist RISK, and to the third

floor to see the ballroom, a soaring space

with exposed bricks and beams. Waiting

for the down elevator, we watched another

car disgorge a guy in a mouth mask and

gangsta wear and two women sporting

thigh-length platinum wigs, schoolgirl

kilts and platform boots. “Anime Expo,”

Spencer explained. “They’re back from

the convention center.”

“Fringe youth culture!” Roshan ex-

claimed. “My thing!”

He wasn’t kidding. Ten minutes and a

short Uber ride later, we were standing

outside the glass-and-steel Los Angeles

Convention Center Annex surrounded by

hundreds of pointy-eared Pikachu, top-

hatted steampunks and pink-haired prin-

cover page for the August issue of Los An-

geles from his leather office bag. In keep-

ing with the magazine’s long tradition of

“Best of ” coverage, it was a “Best of L.A.”

issue — but instead of an obvious image of

a billboard or a marquee, the cover fea-

tured a whimsical cartoon by the hus-

band-and-wife team of artists known as

DabsMyla, inspired by one of its murals

downtown. It reflects Roshan’s resolve “to

keep what Los Angeles was — where to go,

what to eat — but also to be more topical

and newsy and have energy and a voice.”

“I hate the word buzz,” he elaborated,

“but the magazine needed buzz.” In addi-

tion to tips on the best workout under 30

minutes and the best nontoxic nail salon,

the August issue contained a scrappy

piece on Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex

Villanueva. July’s cover story, a Q&A with

actress Louise Linton, the deeply contro-

versial wife of Treasury Secretary Steven

Mnuchin, was so buzzy it earned Roshan a

few minutes on CNN. September features

a lacerating account of Donald Trump’s

clumsy efforts to become a Hollywood

macher. (The cover line: “The Biggest

Loser.”)

It was not hard to generate heat,

Roshan said, covering the new cultural

capital of the country: “It’s undeniable

that over the last decade, L.A., fashion-

wise, politically for sure, the arts commu-

nity — all this stuff that was East Coast-

centric has gravitated west.”

Roshan himself gravitated west in

cesses. (Novelist Bret Easton Ellis, a

friend of Roshan’s since the 1990s, said

such subcultural detours were classic

Roshan: “A few years back we were going

out to dinner, but Maer wanted to meet at

the Scientology center beforehand, take a

little tour and have Scientology people at-

tach E-meters to us.”)

“Oh, look at this guy! Hey, can I take

your picture?” Roshan, hobbled by a bad

back, made his way over to a gold-armored

warrior, who struck a not very fierce pose.

He returned and lit a Marlboro Light. “I

should call our fashion editor and have her

come down and shoot next week’s style

page.”

An uncostumed man with a pair of

headphones wrapped around his neck

overheard Roshan and struck up a con-

versation. He was a video artist, recording

sound for a film on anime. “Maybe we can

use some of that for our website,” Roshan

said, fishing a business card from his bag.

When the video artist went off to capture

more sound, Roshan got out his phone

and texted someone. “Oh, yeah,” he said

under his breath. “We’re already doing an

anime story.”

No matter. Another half-hour at Anime

Expo would inspire potential pieces on

couples who meet at conventions, Comp-

ton Pride (an event held the same week-

end) and the backlash against influencers

(don’t ask, something to do with Hello

Kitty).

Magazine changes

Los Angeles is the oldest independ-

ently published city magazine in the coun-

try. It was founded by a UCLA undergrad-

uate and an ad executive in 1961 and soon

boasted local contributors like Ray Brad-

bury and Joseph Wambaugh. The publi-

cation pioneered the use of celebrity cov-

ers as well as that city-magazine staple,

the service issue (“Top Doctors,” “52

Great Weekends”). After ABC bought it in

1977, issues swelled to the size of phone

books.

While other local titles came and went

— remember Buzz? New West? — Los An-

geles prevailed. In 2000 the Walt Disney

Co. (which had acquired ABC) sold the

magazine to Emmis Communications for

a whopping $30 million. But like most

print publications, it has struggled for ad

revenue in recent years. In 2017 Emmis un-

loaded the title along with three other

magazines for $6.5 million. The buyer, De-

troit-based Hour Media Group, promptly

laid off more than a half-dozen staffers. In

terms of its heft, Los Angeles today more

closely resembles an alumni quarterly

than a phone book.

The first thing you notice about the

magazine’s headquarters, in a sleek sky-

scraper designed by William L. Pereira &

Associates and located across Wilshire

Boulevard from LACMA, is how quiet they

are. A honeycomb of empty cubicles

stretches across the 10th floor. Roshan’s

full-time editorial staff has been whittled

to eight people.

He holds two staff meetings a week,

one for the magazine and one for the web-

site, lamag.com. At a recent website meet-

ing, the conference room looked pretty

full, but interns and freelancers made up

much of the head count. Roshan solicited

story ideas from everyone in the room, re-

sponding to unpaid summer interns and

seasoned journos like “the Maerettes”

(style writers Merle Ginsberg and Susan

Campos) with equal fervor.

Among the pitches:

8 How Uber drivers get “deactivated.”

8 The new, improved protective netting

at Dodger Stadium. (Roshan suggested a

“history of head hits” at the ballpark.).

8 Robot employees in L.A. restaurants

and bars.

8 The cancellation of a Pete Buttigieg

fundraiser at Ryan Murphy’s house.

The last idea was Roshan’s. “The mag-

azine shied away from political content

before,” he said back in his office, a large

corner suite with presumably inspiring

views of LACMA and, behind scaffolding,

the new Academy Museum of Motion Pic-

tures. “They shied away from industry

content too, I guess because they thought

Hollywood was covered by other people.

But we should be covering institutions

MAER ROSHAN’SLos Angeles magazine doesn’t shy from politics, with recent stories about Sheriff Alex Villanueva and Trump’s time in Hollywood.

Photographs byMariah TaugerLos Angeles Times

L.A. editor makes a splash

‘It is what it is. People

can just go out and have

a platform now with

videos and podcasts.’

—MAERROSHAN,

of today’s challenging media landscape, particularly for print

THE STORYideas fly during staff meetings for Los Angeles magazine and its website. Roshan welcomes pitches from interns and veteran journos alike.

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