A trio of Southern California magazines — Los Angeles magazine, Pasadena magazine and Orange Coast magazine — have sold to Engine Vision Media, the company founded by celebrity attorneys Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas.
Los Angeles magazine will immediately relocate from Wilshire Boulevard to the historic Engine Company No. 28 building in downtown L.A. All existing Los Angeles staff will remain with the publication during the transition.
Engine Vision “plans to invest in more content, significantly enhance the magazines’ digital presence, [and] expand the slate of live events hosted by the magazines in their respective communities,” the company said in a press release announcing the sale.
“As someone who was born in downtown Los Angeles and raised in the Pasadena area, it’s a dream to help steward the legacy of these three incredible magazines and provide the resources needed to take them to the next level with a positive vision that celebrates the communities that these magazines serve,” Geragos says in the statement.
Adds Meiselas, “From culture, to entertainment, to food, and business, I am looking forward to setting forth a vision for these magazines to become a trusted source of information and unifying forces in the community.”
The last Los Angeles magazine sale was in 2017 when Emmis Communications sold off multiple titles to Hour Media, a Detroit-based company that owns Hour Detroit, Sacramento magazine, Atlanta magazine, Orange Coast and others.
At the time, the new owners ousted editor Mary Melton and then, in early 2019, hired Maer Roshan as the top editor. Roshan will remain in the position under Engine Vision.
Los Angeles‘ gross circulation as of 2020 was 120,000 monthly.
While not exclusively an entertainment litigator, Geragos made a name for himself in Hollywood representing clients such as Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, Winona Ryder, Nicole Richie and Sean Combs. He’s also recently made headlines in connection with cases involving Kesha and Michael Avenatti.
Meanwhile, Meiselas leads the civil and transactional practices at Geragos & Geragos and represents former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick across all of his legal and business endeavors, including his first-look overall deal with Disney, and is a co-founder of Kaepernick Publishing.
This acquisition continues the trend of expanding their business endeavors well beyond the law. In early 2021, Geragos Global bought Scott’s Family Resort, a 1,000-acre property in the Catskills that was featured in season two of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Meanwhile, Meiselas formed SuperPAC MeidasTouch with his two brothers during the early days of the pandemic. The trio has been behind countless viral political videos, targeting Donald Trump and other key GOP figures, which they began creating in the lead up to the 2020 election. In a post-election interview with THR, Meiselas said he wanted to “build a media network that could rival Fox News one day for Democrats and could really be a counter-voice, a voice for democracy.”