A new journal focusing Asian Americans will be launchedas a sister publication of the San Diego news in the Los Angeles area next month. The new publication will share the San Diego paper's name, Asia: The Journal of Culture & Commerce, as well as some editorial content such as columns on health, family issues and humor, said its co-publisher Leonard Novarro.
Asia has a San Diego circulation of 20,000 and is distributed through 510 locations, mainly health care facilities, restaurants, groceries and neighborhood community centers. The Los Angeles edition, which is scheduled to debut Oct. 19, will have an initial circulation of 60,000.
The San Diego paper is owned by Novarro, who was a features editor at the former San Diego Tribune, and his business partner, Rosalynn Carmen, a former Thai radio show host. The Los Angeles paper is a 50/50 partnership between Novarro and Carmen and Tuan Pham, a native of Vietnam and president and chief executive officer of Phamatech, a San Diego company that makes drug and pregnancy testing devices. The partners are investing $250,000 in the new paper.
In San Diego, Asian-Americans number 365,000, or about 13 percent of the population, Novarro said, while in Los Angeles the number is 2.3 million, also 13 percent of the area's total population. (Source: Keith Darce, SanDiego.com, Sep 1, 2007).