We get the news from vocus.com:

The Los Angeles Times is launching LA Etcetera, a new weekly lifestyle magazine, on May 10. Its coverage will include entertainment, fashion, food, shopping and the nightlife of Southern California. The magazine will be home-delivered to Times subscribers with the newspaper’s Sunday edition.

Initial circulation will be 480,000. LA Etcetera is being produced by the editorial staff of the newspaper’s monthly magazine, LA, with Annie Gilbar as editor in chief.

The L.A. Times may be struggling with its new owner (Sam Zell) and its apparent infighting (with a disconcerted staff), but one thing is certain: They’re loving their magazine. Or at least they think they are.

The mag, slated to emerge on Sept. 7 is already pre-selling ads in the millions of bucks and is expecting a circulation (akin to the Times’ Sunday edition) of 1.2 million, which translates with a pass-around rate to 3.4 million readers.

Editor Annie Gilbar, a veteran of editor of InStyle, is proudest of the fact that it dwarfs any potential competition in the glossy mag world. She says the combined circulations of the competition is less than half a million.

Gilbar and publisher Valarie Anderson, former west coast director for W Magazine, are raring to go with this first 144-page edition of arts, politics, fashion and other entities indigenous to Los Angeles. This is a long way from the 18-to-36-page mags that Times has churned out in the past.

“We want this to be about Los Angeles and about topics in Los Angeles,” says Gilbar. “And we want to use writers. There are so many great writers for books, screenplays, articles and everything in Los Angeles.”

She adds that the first cover will either be about fashion or an undisclosed personality profile, but she won’t tell.

Gilbar is hopeful that if the magazine has a stellar start, it could be a the savior for the actual paper, which has faced difficulties of late with circulation and advertising lost to the Internet. “Right now, I’m more worried about having to cut down great stories and editing them to fit into 144 pages,” Gilbar says.

All we got time for is the press release. More later:

‘LA’: Los Angeles Times Media Group Takes New Approach to Sunday Magazine Business

Annie Gilbar Named Editor-in-Chief

LOS ANGELES, July 28 — The Los Angeles Times Media Group announced today that it will begin publishing “LA” on September 7th, a monthly Sunday magazine, with Annie Gilbar named as editor-in-chief. Signaling a serious intent to competitively engage in the Southern California marketplace, “LA’s” look and attitude will celebrate the unique nuances of life in Los Angeles.

Read more

TellZell has the details (including an ebedded Power Point presentation for you die-hard nerds) of the “revamped” Los Angeles Times Magazine, you know, the one that’s run by the sales department and promises to have all the journalistic integrity of a MySpace blog post”

“The Retch has been provided a copy of the magazine’s mission statement (“Loving L.A. Celebrating L.A.”); a list of editorial features (L.A. 3.0; Dating My Wife; A Dog’s Life) and staffers (Editor in Chief is Annie Gilbar, ex co-host of “Annie’s Eye” on the Home Shopping Network.)

Oh, and that whole thing about whoring out the LA Times news brand? Continues apace. The magazine’s logo is LA, written in LA Times banner font. And the name is still apparently Los Angeles Times Magazine.”

Coverage of the changes to the LAT magazine has raised the ire of one reader who protested:

I’m writing to clear up a rather significant misconception about the new Los Angeles Times Magazine. The editorial will not be driven by publishing. Although the magazine editors will operate independently of the newsroom, they will be held to the same high standards. The magazine will fully comply with ASME guidelines. I’m confident we will be able to produce a magazine that Los Angeles will embrace and a magazine that will profitable.

I have worked with Annie Gilbar on a number of projects over the years. Annie was one of the founding editors of InStyle magazine, one of the most successful launches in magazine history–a magazine that in many ways reinvented women’s fashion magazines. Annie has been the editor-in-chief! of 3 mag managing director of 2 web portals, written 18 books and yes, sold millions of dollars worth of style related product on HSN. It’s a little disconcerting to see her accomplishments so willfully misrepresented online.

OK. But we’re still having a good laugh at Franklin Ave.‘s suggested titles for the new book.