Back Stage West magazine has bought its competition, Drama-Logue, and therefore all but cornered the casting notice business in Los Angeles. The consolidated trade publication will hit stands as Back Stage West/Drama-Logue June 4. Back Stage West -- the California sister of the much older, New York-based Back Stage -- made its debut in 1994, and quickly made its presence known in a niche dominated for many years by Drama Logue, competing for casting information and advertising dollars. The latter was founded in 1972 by actor Bill Bordy. Five years later, the paper introduced the Drama-Logue Awards. Those honors will be discontinued in favor of the Garlands, first given out last January by Back Stage West.

Back Stage West editor Rob Kendt said that the paper would bring one person over from Drama-Logue's four-man team. Bordy, who will collect much of the profit from the sale, retired several years ago. The new combined publication will incorporate some elements of the defunct trade, said Kendt, but for the most part would resemble the format of Back Stage West. The cover price, which is now $2, may go up by as much as a dollar over the next few years, he said.

-- By Robert Simonson