Thursday, June 26, 2003 | 8:18 a.m.
What if the spirit of Las Vegas could be captured in a single publication?
The answer might be found in the pages of VEGAS Magazine, a slick national publication that goes on sale in July.
The mission of the new monthly magazine is to capture the essence of Las Vegas, co-publisher Michael T. Carr said in an interview Wednesday morning.
"It's not a Las Vegas publication," he explained. "It's a national publication with a Vegas-centric focus. It's a national magazine about the emotion of Las Vegas, not the city of Las Vegas.
"I like to say that Las Vegas is a city, but Vegas is a hormone."
Carr, former president of Playboy Magazine and of Weider Publications, moved to Las Vegas from California in 1999. He says he began visiting the city in the mid-'70s and has watched the dramatic changes that have taken place.
During that period Las Vegas transformed itself from a gambling mecca in the desert that provided inexpensive entertainment and buffets on the side to a destination resort sporting five-star restaurants, stylish boutiques and multimillion-dollar productions.
"The level of headliners that come here is phenomenal," Carr said. "And it has become a celebrity playground, not only for Hollywood but also for international stars, as well as the most well-heeled people of the world who come here and experience all of their desires and fantasies, whatever variation they may be.
"We have garnered the attention of the fashion world, and every celebrity chef in the world seems to have a restaurant here. All of that's new in the last 10 years."
VEGAS Magazine has attracted national attention, with recent articles in this week's issue of Newsweek and the May 27 Wall Street Journal.
The new, sexier Entertainment Capital of the World and its mystique will be reflected in the pages of VEGAS Magazine.
The initial press run is 80,000 copies, with 30,000 being distributed in Las Vegas at major hotels, high-end shops and salons, newsstands at McCarran International Airport, bookstores and directly to subscribers at a subscription rate of $32.95 annually. The over-the-counter price is $4.99.
The other 50,000 issues will be distributed nationally to a mailing list of celebrities and other financially successful individuals and at newsstands and airports in markets where a high concentration of Las Vegas visitors live.
The magazine's key feeder cities include Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle and Miami.
The magazine is a joint effort of majority partner Greenspun Media Group, owner of the Las Vegas Sun and other publications, and SoBe News Inc., which publishes Ocean Drive, a stylish magazine extolling the lifestyle of Miami Beach, Fla.
Jerry Powers, publisher of the 10-year-old, Florida-based magazine, is co-publisher of VEGAS.
"What makes the timing of this product so right is really the morph that has taken place in the city itself," Carr said, "from the opening of more and more high-end, super-luxury resort hotels to the onset of more and more high-end retailers."
VEGAS Magazine will be unveiled at an invitation-only party tonight in The Palms at the Rain in the Desert Nightclub and the Skin Pool Lounge. A red carpet will be rolled out for such celebrities as Lisa Marie Presley, Carmen Electra, sisters Paris and Nicky Hilton, Rita Rudner, Michael Flatley, Siegfried & Roy, Carrot Top and others. More than 2,000 guests have been invited to the celebration; 1,500 are expected to attend.
They will be given a look at a slick, 194-page magazine heavy with advertising touting chic attire worn by sexy young men and women, expensive cars, fine dining, jewelry and other products and services that are helping transform Vegas from a glitz city of tinsel and neon to one of glamour and style.
"It's the first time I know of where a consumer magazine was launched on a national scale and was profitable from the first issue," said Carr. "We have over $600,000 in advertising. We're in the black."
Besides the advertising, there are pages of celebrity photos, most taken in Las Vegas, but some shot in Los Angeles and New York City.
There also are interviews with celebrities. Included on the list in the first issue are John Corbett, star of the FX television show, "Lucky" (which is based in Vegas); George Maloof, owner of The Palms; and Donna Baldwin, wife of Mirage Resorts Chief Executive Bobby Baldwin.
Not all of those who were interviewed have strong Las Vegas ties. Supermodel Heidi Klum graces the cover and several inside pages; Robert Evans, producer of such classic films as "The Godfather," "Rosemary's Baby" and "Love Story," talks about his celebrity life; and former porn star-turned-legitimate actress Traci Lords reveals a lot about her inner self (but not her outer one).
Carr speaks about his publication with pride.
"It's going to change the face of publishing in Las Vegas, this I'm quite sure of," he said. "There are a lot of other magazines in the city, but this raises the bar many, many rungs."
VEGAS Magazine looks a lot like Ocean Drive.
"It's similar in size and format, and from a stylization standpoint and content formula," Carr said. "There are those similarities, but that's kind of where they end.
"Our mission (with VEGAS) is very different. The mission of Ocean Drive is predominantly to drive the young, hip and cool scene of Miami Beach. The mission of VEGAS Magazine is really to promote the consumption of Vegas, much like the LVCVA (Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority)."
Carr makes no secret that the publication is going after the rich and the famous, not the average American family.
"From an editorial standpoint, we are styling the book to a very affluent income," he said. "If you look at the advertising, the layout of the kinds of stories we do, the style of writing -- it's marketed to an educated, affluent group, from the $200,000-and-higher household income.
"That does not mean it does not also serve as fuel for the aspirations of younger people who want to achieve that high-income status. It's really about what I would call the hip-and-cool sets. Not necessarily the young, but the hip and cool who have a curiosity about the city, about what goes on and where are the hottest places, what's the hottest dining, where is the best shopping.
"We're promoting the high end of what Las Vegas has to offer," he said. "We are showing the world that Las Vegas as a destination is not just for the masses, but it's also for the most affluent of the world as well."
As Indian casinos around the nation compete for Las Vegas visitors, Carr says VEGAS Magazine is needed to draw attention to the city.
"We showcase Las Vegas as still the premier destination," he said. "Through the images and words that we put in the magazine, we give people the reason to continue to come here.
"You can go to a lot of places and get a gaming experience, but you can only go to Las Vegas to get the Las Vegas experience."
archive
