Orange County Register owner plans daily LA paper

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The parent company of the OrangeCounty Register plans to expand with a daily
paper in Los Angeles,looking to further stretch its regional reach to nearly all of SouthernCalifornia.The
new, seven-days-a-week paper will be known as theLos Angeles Register, Freedom Communications CEO Aaron
Kushner told TheAssociated Press on Thursday night, a few hours after announcing themove to his staff in the
Orange County Register’s newsroom.Kushnerdidn’t give many specifics about plans for the paper but said it
willbe launched "quickly" and will be widely distributed in print in LosAngeles County. The
Register’s story on the launch said it would comeearly next year.Kushner said the paper will share Orange
CountyRegister content in sports and other areas with regional relevance, buthe emphasized it will be a
distinct entity with a Los Angeles office anda staff made up of existing Register employees and new
hires."Itwill be the LA Register, not the Orange County Register," Kushner saidin a phone
interview. "We’re not a national paper, we are a localcommunity-building paper, so that means having
local people in thecommunity they’re covering."Shortly after the announcement,Orange County Register
staffers received an email asking about theirinterest in covering Los Angeles.The move represents the
firsttime in years that a newspaper has sought to challenge the area’sdominant daily, the Los Angeles
Times.The Times’ last citywidedaily competitor, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, folded in 1989, andplans
for startups have been frequently proposed since, but all havefaltered. Los Angeles County’s other
newspapers have largely chosen tofocus on their local area instead of the region.Kushner said he believes
there is a place for a paper with a different emphasis and perspective."Wethink the LA Times is a great
national newspaper. We are a verydifferent kind of newspaper," Kushner said. "Obviously, we have a
verydifferent political perspective. We’re not liberal and we’re notreactionary. We believe in free
markets."Asked to respond, Timesspokeswoman Nancy Sullivan said in an email, "Our first and
foremostmission is serving Southern California, as we have for 132 years."Lastmonth, Freedom
Communications Inc. bought the RiversidePress-Enterprise, the region’s biggest inland newspaper, for
$27.2million from Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp., a month after the deal wasannounced.That acquisition
combined with a new Long Beach dailyand the move into Los Angeles means Freedom’s papers will have vastreach
in a heavily populated region.But it means an increasinglylarge gamble that the millions of potential
readers will turn into lotsof actual customers at a time when the newspaper business is
generallyshrinking.Ken Doctor, a newspaper industry analyst with OutsellInc., said the move may be an
attempt to find new revenue to coverFreedom’s fast-growing costs, but it’s bold
nonetheless."AaronKushner and Freedom Communications are making the most contrarian playin American
newspapers," Doctor said. "While newspapers overall arereceding and retracting and cutting, he is
in expansionist mode."Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten orredistributed.

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