Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc.’s new chief executive is looking to streamline things at the company’s expansive media operations.
Mitch Stern, who took over for Burl Osborne in July, has been working to “cross-pollinate good ideas and eliminate repeats of the same mistakes” at Freedom, which owns the Orange County Register, 32 other newspapers and eight TV stations.
Stern said he is focusing on using the company’s websites “to take the best ideas out there and create systems to implement them across the entire company to make us run more efficiently.”
The company also is taking a “bottom-up strategy” to get employees with good ideas heard at the executive level of the company.
“I don’t believe every good idea comes from the corporate team,” Stern said. “To be more competitive and grow, we need a vibrant exchange of ideas.”
Stern took over for Osborne, who was Freedom’s interim chief executive for about a year after Scott Flanders left to run Chicago-based Playboy Enterprises Inc.
Osborne, who saw Freedom through its nine-month bankruptcy reorganization, remains on the privately held company’s board.
In February, Stern joined Freedom’s board as part of a group of directors who came aboard during the company’s bankruptcy.
“They choose real experts in newspapers, finance, TV, digital applications and others,” Stern said. “It’s like the ‘Justice League of America’ with one superpower in every area.”
Unlike Osborne, who came from the parent company of the Dallas Morning News, Stern’s background is in TV, not newspapers.
“I can talk to the TV people and it’s like shorthand talk,” Stern said. “With the other departments, it’s been a learning experience for me.”
Stern said he spent his first month as chief executive working to understand the financial structure of Freedom.
“When you come out of bankruptcy, it isn’t the same as when you’re operating normally,” he said. “I wanted to look into all the issues and hurdles.”
Stern said the company is in “pretty good shape” with yearly revenue of about $500 million.
Custom Comfort Marketing
Anaheim-based Custom Comfort Mattress Inc. is doing a series of TV, radio and print ads that emphasize the importance of a well-made mattress.
“People get to a certain age where sleep is important to them, and we have a product that has value behind it,” said Marielle Stoermer, director of marketing.
Custom Comfort makes mattresses by hand and sells them through its own stores. It competes with wholesalers and other stores that have been flooding the airwaves with advertisements.
Competitor Sit ’n Sleep of Gardena launched a series of ads earlier this year detailing what happens to mattresses over time. The commercials show that dust mites and sweat can nearly double the weight of your mattress, attempting to spur consumers into stores with gross-out tactics.
Custom Comfort’s ads stress the quality of its mattresses.
The company, which makes mattresses at an Anaheim Hills plant, is a family-run business that got its start making beds for Chief Executive Mel Trudell’s family and friends out of his apartment.
Twenty years later, Custom has grown into seven stores.
Hybrid PR Shop
Newcomer Capwell Communications is looking to create a hybrid public relations agency with a Newport Beach headquarters and a virtual network of consultants.
“Ours is a hybrid model with the best from the traditional PR agency combined with my experience running a national PR network,” said Kimberly Capwell Goolsby, chief executive and founder.
Capwell Goolsby opened the shop earlier this year with 12 workers in Newport Beach.
She also taps a network of out-of-state freelancers to help deploy campaigns.
The team counts a number of clients but caters to startups, particularly in the medical device segment.
“I’ve done a lot of work with venture capital-backed companies and their product launches,” Capwell Goolsby said.
The shop also has a number of well-established companies as clients.
They include Santa Ana-based Abbott Medical Optics Inc., Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp., San Diego-based Dexcom Inc. and Minnesota’s Refractec LLC.
“I’ve always had a knack for positioning medical device firms,” Capwell Goolsby said.
She also has done work over the years for Coca-Cola Co. on several of its product launches.
Capwell was a partner with Irvine-based eLuminatePR.
ELuminatePR was started in 2006 through the combination of eLuminate and the Goolsby Group.
The virtual shop closed its doors in late 2009 when Capwell opened Capwell Communications.
Former eLuminatePR partner Liana Miller launched her own shop, Engaged Communication, earlier this year and works with digital entertainment clients.
