Freedom Communications Inc. will expand to Long Beach on Aug. 1 with a yet-to-be-named daily newspaper, according to the publisher hired to oversee the effort.
The new publication will be available with Freedom’s flagship Orange County Register on a subscription basis and will focus on community news, said Ian Lamont, who returns to the city after serving as publisher of the Long Beach Press-Telegram from 2001 to 2004.
The publication will compete with the Press-Telegram, one of nine daily newspapers under MediaNews Group Inc.’s Los Angeles Newspaper Group.
It will feature two sections, with one focused on community news, features, opinion and “lots of photos,” Lamont said. The second section will report on sports and other activities.
The Long Beach publication will follow new sections, editions and other features added to the Register under Boston-based 2100 Trust LLC, which bought Freedom last year. The new ownership also has overseen expansions of Freedom’s community newspapers. The Current, which serves Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, has gone from being published twice a week to five days a week. The Irvine World News is expected to make a similar shift later this month. And the company recently established the Santa Ana Register as a Monday-through-Friday publication.
―Mediha DiMartino
