Civilization, the Magazine of the Library of Congress has a new publisher and is seeking a wider audience.
On Jan. 15 Capital Publishing signed an agreement buying the award-winning young bimonthly and pledged a major investment to boost advertising and circulation -- now at 218,000.
Capital Publishing is a subsidiary of Boston-based Fidelity Investments. Its CEO is W. Randolph Jones, 41, a former publisher of Esquire. Five years ago, Capital launched Worth, a financial services publication, which last year reached profitability and more than 500,000 circulation in a crowded field. This March, Capital will launch American Benefactor, a quarterly aimed at philanthropists.
Last April Civilization won a National Magazine Award for "general excellence" in its class. It is published under license from the Library, which must approve all investors and use of its name in editorial, advertising and circulation endeavors. The Library is represented on the magazine's board of directors and gets two free pages in each issue. Free subscriptions go to the nation's 1,200 repository libraries. Under the license agreement with Capital, the Library will receive $125,000 as a gift in 1997, another $100,000 once circulation reaches 250,000, and share thereafter in circulation revenues. Civilization subscribers become Library of Congress Associates and get special LC tours and 10 percent discounts at the Library's retail shops and Montpelier Room restaurant.
"The Library's goal, since Civilization was launched in 1994, has been to acquaint a national audience with the Library and its collections," said Peter Braestrup, the Library's senior editor and director of communications, who has served since 1989 as the Librarian's project director for the magazine. "The magazine staff and its initial backers began to create such a constituency for the Library, and we believe Capital Publishing will make it grow." The editorial staff at 666 Pennsylvania Ave. S.E., and the business staff at 475 Park Avenue South in Manhattan -- some 20 employees in all -- will stay on, except for Ray Sachs, the publisher, who is leaving. The founding editor, Stephen Smith, surprised his staff and Civilization's backers by quitting the magazine in mid-December to join National Journal.
Capital bought the magazine from L.O.C. Associates LP, whose chairman, Mark Edmiston, former Newsweek publisher, had first brought the concept to the Library in 1989 with Charles Rodin, a magazine consultant. Civilization's chief backer in 1994 was Petrus Partners Ltd., a Manhattan venture capital firm, headed by Frederick Krimendahl. The sale to Capital, brokered by Mr. Edmiston, ended several weeks of uncertainty since Civilization, although it had won awards, had not met its revenue goals and faced a closedown.
