Freedom Communications Holdings Inc. in Santa Ana said its flagship Orange County Register is running a nighttime version of its ocregister.com website.
The site now continues as a general reflection of the Register’s print edition until 6 p.m. daily, when it shifts to focus on entertainment news, dining and shopping hot spots, places to visit during the weekend, and an events calendar, among others, according to the company.
The move was prompted by statistics that showed general web use spikes between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., and rises again right between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. Evening readers are less interested in traditional hard news stories than their daytime counterparts, and “gravitate toward leisure and entertainment topics during their leisure hours,” the company said.
The daytime edition of ocregister.com will remain available via a box at the top left of the nighttime site for readers who prefer that version.
The shift comes as the Register’s cash-strapped parent aims to bolster digital ad revenue as it seeks to regain steady profits after recent disruption to delivery of its print edition.
“Retailers, restaurants and entertainment venues are ideal candidates to secure banner positions right beside related go-and-do news content in the Night Site,” John Cazandjian, the Register’s director of digital advertising, said in a statement. “We know print and online newspaper readers are aggressive consumers of advertising. When advertisers take advantage of the Night Site or other custom programs that are aligned with specific interests, locations and web activities, OCRegister.com becomes that much more powerful of a tool to help them reach the their prospective customers.”
