Content area
Full text
Two Orange County magazines are in a coastal brouhaha.
Newport Beach-based Orange Coast Magazine is squaring off against Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc. and its Coast magazine in a bid to get its rival to drop "Coast" from its name.
The spat went public in an ad in the Business Journal last week. The ad was a letter to Freedom's board of directors from Orange Coast supporters, who footed the bill for the full-page piece.
The letter reads in part: "As readers and as advertisers-in many cases of both magazines-we wish to express our concern that the increasing similarity that your magazine, Coast, now bears to Ruth Ko's publication, Orange Coast, has created a level of marketplace confusion that can no longer be ignored."
It goes on to "urge the board and management of Freedom Communications to eliminate the word 'Coast' from its magazine's title and use a name that clearly differentiates it from its competitor, Orange Coast magazine."
"We've been negotiating with them for...