Slicks and the City

Aaron R. Fodiman and Gregory L. Snow were best friends. In fact, Fodiman was Snow's best man. "Aaron was there when I needed him," Snow said.

The two were cosmopolitan back when you could still buy undeveloped land in Pinellas County and Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous still fueled America's lust for worldly goods.

Together, Fodiman and Snow published one of the first chapters in the history of local magazine publishing. Today, they're still at it — with possibly the most important chapter about to be written.

According to Snow, their friendship ended 14 years ago at Clearwater's Kapok Tree. Then publisher and editor of Tampa Bay Magazine, Snow said he was prepared to present company directors with a $750,000 buyout offer that would have given them 20 times their original investment.

As the 55-year-old Snow tells it, the board did not hear about the offer that day. Fodiman, then president of the company, began the meeting with a motion to dismiss Snow and the board did just that, according to Snow.

"It changed my whole life," said Snow, who chose not to take legal action. "I decided a long time ago that if I had to go to court for things I felt I was owed, I would have to go to court a lot."

The story would be sad — and certainly damning to Fodiman — if it were true.

Snow suggested that board members Fred Horton and Mark Maconi could verify Fodiman's alleged coup. Both said they have no recollection of the 1988 board meeting.

Maconi said everyone involved with Tampa Bay Magazine "felt sorry" for Snow, who originally founded the magazine as Tampa Bay/The Suncoast's Magazine.

Snow brought in Horton, Maconi, Fodiman and other investors when his magazine foundered financially. Each kept chipping in money to keep the magazine alive and protect investments, Maconi said.

Fodiman couldn't oust Snow from the company, Maconi said, because Snow didn't have stock left in Tampa Bay Magazine by 1988. Fodiman shitcanned Snow, then an employee of the company, to save the magazine. "He had to step in to save everybody else's investment," Maconi said of Fodiman.

Snow expressed surprise when informed that neither Horton nor Maconi would confirm his story. "If they take my side, Aaron is going to get real mad at them," he said. "They have a vested interest in the magazine."

It is here perhaps that current Tampa Bay Magazine publisher Aaron Fodiman could fill in some of the blanks. But Fodiman, 64, refused three interview requests. "I will come out as a dog," said Fodiman, who believes Weekly Planet is out to smear him.

Fodiman and Snow, though estranged, still have many things in common.

Both continue to publish a magazine catering to the area's wealthiest residents. Both run in an influential crowd of corporate leaders and nouveau riche. Both have a history of legal and tax problems.

Despite a slumping economy and an advertising downturn, Fodiman and Snow now have company on the local newsstand. Three publishers have launched slick glossies to compete with Fodiman's Tampa Bay Magazine and Snow's Tampa Bay's Best for a decreasing number of advertising dollars.

If history is any indication, they're in for an ugly fight.

Glossed OverCity and regional magazines popped up around the country in the 1960s and '70s, a time many consider a landmark era for investigative journalism. Philadelphia exposed political corruption. Chicago unearthed scandal after scandal. Texas Monthly made a name for itself with ballsy stories.

"When city magazines started, a post-World War II phenomenon, they were alternatives to the daily newspapers," said Jim Dowden, executive director of the City and Regional Magazine Association, which represents 85 magazines throughout North America.

City magazines offered readers narrative journalism with local angles. Local advertisers received glossy display ads that before then had been available only in expensive national magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and Time.

In the late '70s and early '80s, second-tier cities such as Tampa received their own city magazines. Over the last 20 years, many titles have claimed to be the area's city magazine, including: Tampa Bay/The Suncoast's Magazine, Tampa Bay/The Tri-City Magazine, Tampa Magazine, Tampa Bay Life, New York Yankees owner George M. Steinbrenner III's Tampa Bay Monthly and the first Tampa Bay Metro, published by the late Richard N. Hoerner Jr., founder of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Tampa Magazine, published in the early to mid-'80s, came the closest to the hard-hitting style of Philadelphia and Chicago. In its heyday, Tampa Magazine printed uncompromising reports with a dash of sensationalism: "Murder on the Kennedy Strip" and "How Greed and Corruption Killed the Metropolitan Bank."

But the recession of the late '80s and early '90s changed city and regional magazines in fundamental ways. When advertising dollars are tight, publishers play it safe. The first to go are investigative reports that could cause an offended business to pull its much-needed advertising dollars.

"The city mags took a big hit in the last advertising recession," said Dowden. As a result, the magazines began to diversify and started advertiser-friendly real estate and interior design departments.

At the same time, the other editorial content fluffed up. Less politics, more fashion.

Today's city magazine reports on a transparent world of money and beautiful people. It's targeted at society's wealthiest citizens — the readers that high-end salons, furniture stores and Realtors salivate over.

Superficial though they may be, city and regional magazines are hot commodities these days. According to Samir Husni, a University of Mississippi journalism professor who tracks magazine launches, city and regional titles had the most launches of any U.S. magazine category in 2001. The trend continues. In June alone, 13 regional magazines launched.

"We are now more interested in our communities after Sept. 11 (of last year)," said Husni, explaining the current popularity. "The less I must leave my hometown, the better I am."

Since December 2001, three regional titles have joined Tampa Bay Magazine on Bay area newsstands: a new Tampa Bay Metro, Bay to Bay and Snow's Tampa Bay's Best. The winter will see a fourth, Tampa Bay Illustrated.

Asked about the new competition, Husni laughed. "There have been more magazines that have come and gone in Tampa than any other city in Florida," said Husni. "Tampa is the deathbed of new magazines."

Debts and More DebtsAfter Snow left Tampa Bay Magazine, Fodiman told the St. Petersburg Times that he hadn't been happy with the editorial focus of the publication.

"It had been building for a long time, but I guess it was a cover story he ordered on Belize that did it," Fodiman told the Times of Snow's termination. "I didn't see anything that related to the Bay area in Belize. He wanted us to be more regional. I didn't."

Not long after, Snow leased office space three doors down from Fodiman's and started a new magazine, Tampa Bay/The Tri-City Magazine. "That drove Aaron crazy," Snow said.

After Tampa Bay/The Tri-City Magazine's launch, Fodiman filed suit in 1989 against Snow's company. Snow's magazine, the lawsuit contended, had a title too similar to Tampa Bay Magazine and caused brand confusion. The lawsuit also alleged that Snow told advertisers that Fodiman was out of business, had financial problems, used the same subscription base as Snow, and did not publish as many copies of Tampa Bay Magazine as he claimed.

The lawsuit, which was later dismissed, reported Tampa Bay Magazine's gross revenue from 1986 to 1989 as $2.3-million.

During this period, Micromedia Affiliates, the New Jersey company Snow claims was initially interested in buying Tampa Bay Magazine, launched a third city magazine in the region, Tampa Bay Life — ironically, the name of the first regional magazine Snow launched here in August 1977.

After Fodiman filed suit against Snow, Micromedia Affiliates purchased Snow's Tampa Bay/The Tri-City Magazine and merged it with Tampa Bay Life. Micromedia paid Snow $50,000 to cover his future sales commissions and another $40,000 to sign a three-year non-compete agreement, Snow confirmed to the Planet.

In 1992, Tampa Bay Life fell victim to the local magazine curse. Micromedia folded the magazine. But before Tampa Bay Life closed its doors, Snow said, he launched Wedding & Party Planner Magazine, with Micromedia's blessing. The magazine is in its 11th year. In 1997, Snow started Tampa Bay's Best, a short-lived venture that Snow folded until he re-launched it last June.

Publishing is a tough racket. Most magazines fail. Considering Snow has been slicking pages since the late '70s, he could be called successful.

But then there are all the people and businesses that have sued the magazine publisher. Records in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties show Snow has a history of skipping hearings when customers or creditors go to court to recover money from him.

In 1986, Snow filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. The filing showed that Snow owed $437,262, including $23,000 to Fodiman.

But even after a bankruptcy judge discharged his debt, Snow continued to have financial trouble. Currently, he has seven court judgments against him totaling $77,272, including claims from a Largo dentist who bought $1,398 worth of advertising that never appeared in Tampa Bay's Best and WTVT-Ch. 13 for commercials promoting a Snow bridal fair for which he has yet to pay.

Snow didn't leave out the Internal Revenue Service. County records show that federal tax liens against him date back to the '80s, though many of those liens have since been discharged.

"I'll admit I went through the good, the bad and the ugly," Snow said when asked about his financial problems. Pressed for details about specific cases, Snow refused to answer further questions. "I don't want to go down that road. I live for the present, not the past."

From Lawyer to EntrepreneurFodiman, who once was licensed to practice law in two states and the District of Columbia, has experienced legal problems as well.

In 1978, Fodiman pleaded guilty in New Jersey to violating federal banking laws. Fodiman paid a bank officer's wife $12,400 after the officer secured $124,000 in loans for him, according to a report by the District of Columbia Bar. A federal judge gave Fodiman a five-year suspended sentence on each of three misdemeanor counts, placed him on probation for five years and fined him $5,000.

When the D.C. Bar learned of the guilty plea, Fodiman was disbarred. He was also suspended from practicing law in Virginia and New York.

After Fodiman left the legal profession, he became a businessman. "I observed my clients making so much money in other businesses that I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur, too," Fodiman told Florida Trend in 1988.

In 1980, Fodiman became president of a chain of fast-food chicken franchise in New York. Two years later, shareholders of the chain filed a class-action lawsuit after Fodiman failed to disclose his New Jersey conviction, Florida Trend reported.

Questioned about the conviction by The Wall Street Journal, Fodiman refused comment. "I really hope you understand," he told the Journal in 1982. "It's one of those touchy situations."

Fodiman later moved to Clearwater and became president of Kapok Tree Restaurants, which owned two Bay area restaurants popular among tourists. Because Kapok owned a sizable amount of undeveloped real estate, Fodiman and a business partner saw an opportunity in the retirement industry. Developers broke ground next door to the Kapok Tree in Clearwater for one retirement home, and Fodiman and his partner renamed Kapok's parent company Hampton Healthcare to reflect the business change.

But it didn't take long for the venture to wilt. In July 1988, two months after Fodiman fired Snow from Tampa Bay Magazine, Hampton Healthcare/Kapok Tree filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The company's financial problems appeared to mirror its president's. Fodiman ran up $47,787 in IRS debt during the '80s. The IRS didn't release a tax lien for the debt till 1992.

Ads or Articles?While Fodiman made business mistakes, Maconi praises the disbarred lawyer for stepping in to save the troubled Tampa Bay Magazine.

According to Maconi, Fodiman even bought out frustrated smaller investors at his own loss. "I don't think he really wanted to publish a magazine," Maconi said. "But I think now he's come to enjoy what he does."

Fodiman has kept Tampa Bay Magazine on newsstands for the past 15 years. In this new-magazine-deathbed region, Fodiman's staying power is no small feat.

But Fodiman's latest problems are more gray than glossy.

Tampa Bay Magazine has become something of a promotional vehicle for Fodiman and his wife and co-publisher, Margaret Word Burnside. It's not unusual to see their portraits or photographs on the covers of the magazine. The September/October 2001 issue featured a photograph of the glamorously dressed Burnside, champagne glass raised in a toast. Many issues of Tampa Bay Magazine have at least three — sometimes as many as seven — photographs of Fodiman and Burnside, 57, living the good life.

Fodiman and Burnside each own large homes in north Pinellas County, and every day Fodiman wakes up with the option of driving one of his eight classic cars, each with a customized plate. On Monday, he might drive his 1959 Jaguar with the plate PHAT CAT. Perhaps on Tuesday he'll take his 1991 Rolls Royce, marked AFROLLS in the rear. Or maybe you'll see him on a Sunday drive in his 1976 Mercedes. Look for the plate with his name on it: AARONF.

In addition to serving as a playground for its publishers, Tampa Bay Magazine presents readers with a melding of advertising and editorial. The May/June 2002 issue, for example, included an obsequious, three-page article by Fodiman about Volvo automobiles, only 11 pages away from a full-page ad for Ferman Volvo. The September/October 2001 issue featured an unsigned article headlined "Dropping "Junior,'" about St. Petersburg Junior College's name change to St. Petersburg College — only four pages away from a full-page ad for the college. The November/December 2001 issue carried a Fodiman article about the Jaguar X-Type. In the same issue, of course, Crown Jaguar sprung for a full-page ad for the $30,545 car.

One such coincidence caught the attention of the Florida Bar in 1998 when it disciplined Clearwater personal injury attorney Tom Carey. According to information that came before the Bar's grievance committee, a relationship existed between an article about Carey and a $4,000 full-page ad Carey purchased in Tampa Bay Magazine.

Samuel "Sandy" Golden, the lawyer's former publicist who filed the Bar complaint, wrote a gushing profile of Carey headlined "Tom Carey — A Legendary Lawyer" and submitted it to Tampa Bay Magazine. According to Fodiman's testimony in the Bar grievance, he changed a few words, slapped his byline on the story and published it. In fact, Fodiman didn't verify whether the people quoted in the article even existed, according to his deposition. What's more, prior to publication, Fodiman sent a typeset galley of the article to Golden for approval.

The Florida Supreme Court, which enforces strict Bar advertising guidelines that forbid attorneys from making statements they cannot prove, admonished Carey.

Asked about the practice of blurring the line between editorial and advertising, Bob Dardenne, a professor of journalism at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg, said, "It's a breach of ethics."

Husni of the University of Mississippi put it more bluntly: "This is prostitution journalism."

Invading BabylonWhen Micromedia, which purchased Snow's former magazine, closed Tampa Bay Life and left town in 1992, Fodiman became the only slicker in the city.

But today he finds new bedfellows.

Last December, Stephen Parag II leveraged his successful advertising firm to start Tampa Bay Metro, a well-designed glossy attempting to capture a 35- to 55-year-old readership, slightly younger than Tampa Bay Magazine's demographic.

"I wasn't happy with what was out there," Parag said of the Bay area's magazine selection. The bimonthly Tampa Bay Metro, the second local magazine to carry the title, boasts an unaudited circulation of 20,000.

In June, two additional magazines joined the fray: Tampa Bay's Best and Bay to Bay.

Tampa Bay's Best, published by Snow and at least his fifth magazine startup, is a quarterly with an unaudited circulation of 20,000.

Bay to Bay, founded by a North Carolina transplant, takes a different approach. Instead of publishing 20,000 bimonthly or quarterly, Bay to Bay prints an unaudited 60,000 copies twice a year, refreshing newsstands and hotel rooms when supplies run low.

"The competition doesn't scare me," said Bay to Bay publisher Quentin R. Senise, who previously published two magazines in the Carolinas.

In an example of the local magazine industry's incest, Bay to Bay's editor is Sherry Babbitt, the former editor of Tampa Bay Magazine.

But if any of the new competitors should worry local publishers, it's Palm Beach Media. The publisher of Palm Beach Illustrated and Naples Illustrated is so bullish on the Bay area that it's remodeling and expanding a St. Petersburg office before the first issue of Tampa Bay Illustrated even hits newsstands.

"We feel the market is very much underserved," said Sherman M. Robbins, editor-in-chief of Palm Beach Media.

A company that publishes 12 magazines in all, Palm Beach Media expects Tampa Bay Illustrated to become its largest title. Naples Illustrated publishes 40,000 issues nine times a year, according to Robbins. The Tampa Bay market is approximately 10 times larger than the Naples market, but it's worth noting that even Fodiman's Tampa Bay Magazine only distributes 31,446 issues six times a year, according to a U.S. Postal Service circulation statement.

Robbins isn't worried about the crowded market. "It follows the basic tenet that if we publish a good product editorially, readers will read our magazines and therefore buy the products and services of those who advertise in our magazines," he said.

While Parag of Metro admits Palm Beach Media's competition will be formidable, he welcomes the challenge. A Bay area native, Parag is well aware of the local magazine curse and doesn't plan to duplicate the fate of some predecessors. "I have no intention of being a city mag cliche," he said.

Now that this peculiar segment of the local publishing industry has a few new characters, who will emerge from this next chapter in the convoluted history of Bay area magazines? Can Parag, Senise or Robbins replace Fodiman and Snow and finally offer us a first-class city magazine?

Samir Husni, who spends his days at Ole Miss analyzing new magazines and boasts a collection of 20,000 different first editions, chuckled when asked how many magazines the Tampa Bay market can bear. "One, maybe," Husni replied.

Contact Staff Writer Trevor Aaronson at 813-248-8888, ext. 134, or trevor.aaronson@weeklyplanet.com.

This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2002.