GENERAL

SUBSCRIPTIONS 800-397-8179
REPRINTS Glenda Espinoza 949-862-1133, ext. 109
OFFICE 3701 Birch St., Suite 100  Newport Beach, CA 92660

Customer Service — 800-397-8179

Orange Coast Offices — 949-862-1133 (phone); 949-862-0133 (fax)

Publisher — Linda Goldstein (lgoldstein@orangecoastmagazine.com)

EDITORIAL

Martin J. Smith msmith@orangecoastmagazine.com
Editor-in-Chief
Smith is a veteran journalist and magazine editor who has won more than 40 newspaper and magazine writing awards. He became Orange Coast’s top editor in 2007 after nearly eight years at the grandly ambitious but ultimately doomed Los Angeles Times Magazine. He also spent nine years as a reporter and columnist for The Orange County Register. In addition to his 30-plus years as a journalist, he is the author of three crime novels (including the Edgar Award-nominated “Straw Men”) and two nonfiction books. Still, he’s most proud of his ongoing series of crank letters to inept service vendors and the makers of faulty home appliances. He considers “Re: Cuisinart Toaster Model CBW-177” to be his masterpiece.

Mindy Benham mbenham@orangecoastmagazine.com
Art Director
The Milwaukee native joined Orange Coast following stints at Milwaukee and Las Vegas Life magazines. She has collected numerous magazine awards in her 13-year career, the latest being a “Best Dimples” citation based on a childhood photograph displayed during a colleague’s recent baby shower. She designs Orange Coast with clear organization and a sense of fun, which also is how she approaches each workweek (though she hasn’t yet prevailed in her quest to stage a pizza taste test for the staff). Her Orange County home is Costa Mesa, where her favorite haunts include The Beach Pit BBQ and the Beard Papa’s counter inside Marukai Market.

Jim Walters jwalters@orangecoastmagazine.com
Managing Editor
Walters has worked at The Daily Breeze, The Orange County Register, and the Los Angeles Times as a copy and news editor during the last 30 years. Smitten by dotcom fever, he left print journalism to work as managing editor at GeoCities before the company was acquired by Yahoo! in 1999. The Ohio native also has taught at the University of Southern California. An Orange Coast staffer since 2008, he loves huskies and malamutes, detests open-toed shoes on women, and doesn’t have an ATM card. He denies being Amish.

Chris Christensen cchristensen@orangecoastmagazine.com
Senior Editor/Style
Christensen oversees the magazine’s dining, fashion, and home-design coverage. A former metro columnist for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, and more recently the food editor and columnist for the award-winning weekly FOODday section of The Oregonian in Portland, she brings not only stylish writing to Orange Coast, but a refined sensibility desperately lacking among certain co-workers who consider Costco a perfectly acceptable place to shop for gourmet food, clothes, and home furnishings. One of her stories was a 2000 James Beard Award finalist, and earlier this year, in a unanimous vote, Christensen was named Orange Coast’s Responsible Adult. She’s wild for beach cottages and cashmere sweaters, and has never met a margarita she didn’t like.

Anne Valdespino avaldespino@orangecoastmagazine.com
Senior Editor/Features
Valdespino, a Texas native, has spent 24 frustrating years searching for great barbecue in Orange County. She began her career at The Daily News of Los Angeles, then graduated to The Orange County Register, where she was an entertainment writer and features editor. She then moved her wicked wit and cheerful cynicism to the Los Angeles Times to serve as Calendar editor for the Orange County edition and as an entertainment writer at the mother ship. More recently, she has written about food, wine, and restaurants for Orange Coast and other publications. Her brisket is to die for.

Carly Hebert chebert@orangecoastmagazine.com
Associate Art Director
Hebert joined Orange Coast in July 2010, bringing with her a narcoleptic English bulldog named Hobbs whose remarkable underbite gives him the look of a demented Winston Churchill. A coffee fiend, she grew up on a Montana ranch and graduated with honors from the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology with a degree in commercial photography. Before joining Orange Coast, she was the associate art director for Western Interiors & Design, and the former creative director of Swoop, a fashion magazine.

Glenda Espinoza gespinoza@orangecoastmagazine.com
Production and Online Director
Espinoza coordinates placement of editorial and advertising material in the magazine, oversees the magazine’s Web site, and handles many other aspects of print and online production. She came to Orange Coast from Tu Ciudad, a hip Los Angeles-based Latino style and culture magazine published by Emmis Communications until June 2008. She holds a B.A. degree in graphic design from San Diego State University, and also has worked as a product manager in the music industry. Her Orange Coast baby shower in February 2009 triggered a wave of competitive narcissism among certain staffers who obsessed about the relative cuteness of their own baby pictures, requiring the creation of individual awards such as Best Dimples and Most Beautiful. Her daughter, Charlize Lissette Mendez, was born in April 2009.

Letters to the Editor — Martin Smith (MSmith@OrangeCoastMagazine.com)

O.C. Answer Man — Chris Epting (cepting@orangecoastmagazine.com)

Arts and Events Calendar — Anastacia Grenda (agrenda@orangecoastmagazine.com)

Dining Guide — Chris Christensen (cchristensen@orangecoastmagazine.com)

"Talking Ducks" and "On the Market" writer -- Rose Flores Medlock (rmedlock@orangecoastmagazine.com)

2010 Editorial Calendar click here

WRITER’S GUIDELINES

Orange Coast publishes all kinds of non-fiction stories: narratives, profiles, investigative pieces, memoir, essays, and more. But before you submit, please make sure you’re familiar with the magazine’s format. If you can pitch an idea into one of Orange Coast’s existing front-of-the-book departments or formatted slots, your odds of success go up dramatically.

Generally, the best approach for having a feature story accepted is to write a short query letter outlining the proposed piece, or a series of thumbnail ideas for stories you think might work in the magazine. Use those queries to sketch out your ideas in broad strokes, from which we can tell if you’re proposing the type of story that might be appropriate for Orange Coast’s audience. When we find an idea that might work, we may ask for a fuller and more deeply researched pitch on that particular topic.

The quality of pitched ideas is paramount, but we also consider other factors, including the writer’s point of view on the topic, the writer’s ability to tell the story with a strong, authoritative voice, and the writer’s demonstrated success at writing similar stories in the past.

Just e-mail pitches to Orange Coast
Editor-in-Chief Martin J. Smith (msmith@orangecoastmagazine.com),
Senior Editor Anne Valdespino (avaldespino@orangecoastmagazine.com), or  Managing Editor Jim Walters (JWalters@OrangeCoastMagazine.com)
If your idea involves food, fashion, or home design, e-mail it to
Senior Editor Chris Christensen (cchristensen@orangecoastmagazine.com).

You also may send query letters to us at 3701 Birch Street, Suite 100, Newport Beach, 92660, though response time for mailed submissions can be slower. In all cases, we will try to get back to you as promptly as possible. Manuscripts and photographs will be handled with care, but the magazine assumes no responsibility. Unsolicited material will not be returned unless accompanied by return postage and envelope.

Sales Contacts