It’s the biggest story about Southern California newspapers in years. But don’t look for much, if any, coverage in the Los Angeles Times or Orange County Register.
Last month, London’s Financial Times reported that the L.A. Times’ parent Tribune Co. could be looking at buying the Register or combining some operations to cut costs.
The story followed a September Business Journal article that said businessmen George Argyros and Larry Higby had expressed interest in buying the Register, and that the L.A. Times and Register were in talks about combining some operations.
The Register has touched on the talk, posting a brief story on its Web site last month about the Financial Times’ report.
A month earlier, the paper posted a Web story and ran a print version after the Business Journal’s report.
In the stories, Scott Flanders, chief executive of Irvine-based parent company Freedom Communications Inc., reiterated a statement he also gave to the Business Journal:
“We are now having conversations with both strategic and nonstrategic partners that in the past would have not been possible.” BR>
Register columnist Frank Mickadeit poked some fun at the speculation in a column saying it was “never too early to suck up” to Argyros.
But the L.A. Times hasn’t printed a word about the speculation.
“The Los Angeles Times does not report on rumors and gossip,” spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan said.
L.A. Times editor Russ Stanton didn’t respond to a request for comment for this column.
Last week, the Audit Bureau of Circulations, a Schaumburg, Ill.-based industry group, released circulation numbers for both papers.
The Register saw one of the more marked declines in the past six months, falling 14% from a year earlier
to 236,270 subscribers for Monday through Saturday. The Sunday edition was down 4% to 298,410.
A decision to cut the least valuable paid subscribers
to advertisers to focus on home deliveries made up 90% of the drop, Flanders said.
Home deliveries were down about 1% in the period, putting the Register “in the top third of metro newspapers in the country,” he said.
The L.A. Times saw a 5.2% drop in Monday to Saturday circulation to 739,147. The Times was down 5.1% on Sundays to a little more than 1 million subscribers.
Freedom Interactive Changes Execs
Freedom Interactive, the Freedom Communications unit that runs OCRegister.com and other sites, promoted two executives.
Jeff Light, the former deputy editor of OCRegister.com, takes on the role of vice president of interactive in charge of planning, direction and content development. He’ll report to Horne, publisher of the Register.
“My job is to simplify things by providing a single point of contact, that one person you can go to get an answer, resolve disagreements or make things happen,” Light said.
Mike Hodges was promoted to vice president of sales, where he will be in charge of the creation and expansion of Freedom’s interactive sales. Hodges will report to Doug Bennett, president of Freedom Interactive.
Along with the Register site, Freedom Interactive runs sites for the company’s Spanish-language newspaper Excelsior, magazines and OrangeCounty.com, an entertainment site.
The auto section of OCRegister.com recently added improved search options, two blogs and more auto news.
Now Freedom Interactive is focused on reaching readers on their mobile phones.
Phone users can get a list of autos for sale in their area. The company is looking to roll out mobile coupons soon.
Pay at the Pump
Some big brands are in talks with Irvine-based PumpTop TV to use the company’s network of TV screens on top of gas station pumps, according to an executive.
Clear Channel Communications Inc. “is tossing it over right now,” said Paul Schmidt, vice president of sales for PumpTop.
The company, part of Irvine-based AdtekMedia Inc., runs screens on elevators, gas pumps and grocery stores.
PumpTop advertisers include the California Lottery Commission, Jack in the Box Inc. and Best Buy Co.
The company has more than 6,500 screens nationwide, according to Schmidt.
PumpTop has to prove itself to advertisers at a time when some are cutting back or narrowing their marketing. It offers a four-week free trial of its service.
“A media buyer’s initial reaction regardless to economic trends is to buy what you know works,” Schmidt said. “For an untested medium to come in, it’s risky and media buyers are hesitant to spend their client’s media dollars.”
PumpTop competes with New York-based Destination Media’s Gas Station TV and Los Angeles-based Fuelcast Media Network Inc., which works with Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Shell gas stations.
PumpTop has 56 workers locally and account managers in its top markets.
It recently hired Michelle Breese as national product manager. She was a media director at Irvine-based Johnson Gray Advertising Inc.
Bits and Pieces:
Newport Beach-based Sturgess Co. added two clients, San Diego-based Ivera Medical Corp. and Florida’s OmniComm Systems Inc. The ad shop specializing in medical device marketing will be helping Ivera with its Curos port protector to help control hospital-acquired bloodstream infections. Sturgess also will be helping market OmniComm’s software for clinical research data San Clemente-based California Milk Processor Board enlisted the help of its advertising agency, San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, and Colorado’s Junior Achievement Worldwide, a nonprofit that brings the real world to students, to have three California high schools come up with the next teen-targeted campaign for “Got Milk.” Among the schools is Orange High School in Orange.
