Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc., parent company of the Orange County Register, doesn’t see a future in requiring readers to pay for news on its Web sites after its latest experiment with a pay wall fizzled out.
Freedom’s Valley Morning Star newspaper in Texas, which was the testing ground for the company’s plans to charge users for online access to its papers, returned to a free site last month after less than a year of charging for online stories.
The newspaper, which covers the area south of Corpus Christi, charged online readers who didn’t subscribe to the weekly edition.
Weekend subscribers and those who didn’t get the paper at all had to pay a 75 cent daily subscription fee to view stories on the paper’s site. Monthly rates also were available.
The move was an attempt to recover revenue lost from the print advertising downturn and to capitalize on an increase in online readers.
After the experiment with the Texas newspaper, Freedom has said it has no plans to try pay walls at any other of its papers.
It’s a change of pace for the company, which said last year its days of giving content away online were over.
Some newspapers have enacted pay walls, including the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times plans to start charging for its Web site in 2011.
Other newspaper chains, including Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc. and Dallas-based Belo Corp., are planning their own pay wall tests with their regional dailies.
MediaNews said in February it would start charging this month for access to two newspapers. Belo said it might start charging users for access to the Providence Journal-Bulletin in Rhode Island in the near future.
Verizon Drives Rauxa
Costa Mesa-based Rauxa Direct LLC has expanded its New York office on the heels of new business.
The direct marketing agency moved into a larger space in Manhattan to better serve its expanding client roster and growing staff.
Much of the growth is from the Manhattan office’s largest account: Verizon Wireless Inc., part of New York’s Verizon Communications Inc.
“In the three years since we moved out to the East Coast we have acquired several new divisions with Verizon,” said Gina Alshuler, senior vice president of account services and head of the New York office.
Verizon is the reason the New York office even exists, according to the ad shop.
“Our client said it would really behoove Rauxa to open an office near them,” Alshuler said.
The East Coast office originally consisted of two Orange County transplants running the business in New Jersey above a bagel shop in 2007.
“Two months after our client suggested we come out, we’re sitting on the floor above Jersey Boy Bagel with our laptops calling it our East Coast office,” Alshuler said.
The shop has expanded from the original two to 52 employees.
The office now handles a number of Fortune 500 accounts and sees about $30 million in revenue.
Rauxa Direct also is expecting growth at its two other satellite offices: in San Francisco and Texas.
“We’ve definitely had some really big wins recently starting this past year in all three of our offices,” Alshuler said.
Doner’s Cosmetic Changes
The Newport Beach office of Southfield, Mich.-based Doner Co. has reinvented itself to meet some old challenges.
Doner unveiled a new logo and Web site last month, but it is facing a sizable account review by one of its largest clients.
This March, Mazda North American Operations in Irvine put its $150 million yearly advertising account up for grabs, which the ad shop is looking to defend.
The automaker, part of Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp., hired Boston-based firm Pile and Co. to oversee the account review.
Mazda also put the head of its Canadian arm, Don Romano, in charge of North American marketing, as part of the ongoing advertising review.
The moves are the latest in the automaker’s search for a new agency after working with Doner since 1997.
The Newport Beach office long has counted Mazda as its largest account. It works with some local companies including Lake Forest-based fast food chain Del Taco LLC and Newport Beach-based Hawaiian fusion restaurant chain Roy’s, part of Florida’s OSI Restaurant Partners LLC.
The revamp to its logo and Web site comes on the heels of Doner’s ownership shift late last year with Chief Executive Alan Kalter selling his stake to three other senior executives: David DeMuth, Rob Strasberg and Tim Blett, who runs the Newport Beach office.
Despite the ad review, Doner is hard at work for the summer debut of Mazda’s 2011 Mazda2 subcompact.
The campaign should start sometime in late July with TV, radio and print ads, according to Mazda. The shop also is working on the digital and social media campaigns to help drive consumers to Mazda’s Web site and dealerships.
‘CSI’ at CSUF
Cal State University, Fullerton’s campus was the scene of the latest murder in Miami this month.
The university recently was occupied by the cast and crew of “CSI: Miami” to shoot a scene for the season finale of the popular crime drama.
The school’s pool was the scene of a grisly murder.
Southern California has doubled for Miami for most of the show’s run.
The episode is set to air May 24 at 10 p.m. on CBS.
