Granted, it’s been a while (four months) since I moved in such circles, but the merger of LiveLB and Long Beach Magazine (Live Publishing purchased the magazine, formerly owned by the Molinas) seems incredibly troubling.

As I understood it, that LiveLB was (is?) pay-to-play was (is?) an open secret. Long Beach Magazine never shied away from shamelessly covering advertisers, granted, but I didn’t hear any rumblings akin to LiveLB’s unabashed blurring between edit and ads over there. Plus, LBM employed some of the very same freelancers I was working with at The District. It was an enjoyable if not somewhat sleepy read. That this pay-to-play model could wind up in the arguably classier pages of LBM is of great concern.

My only hope is that the advertisers in Long Beach wise up to a fishy proposition when they hear it—that is, if they hear it. (Via The Press-Telegram, which is looking for an editor, by the way.)