Register Stretches to Long Beach for Circulation Pickup
By PAT MAIO
The Orange County Register is trying to move north,again.
The Santa Ana-based Register, whose circulation has declined by nearly 17% since 2000, has expanded its home delivery and news rack presence in Belmont Shore two years after retreating from an earlier effort.
Chris Anderson, president of Freedom Metro Information, the unit of Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc. that publishes the Register, said the paper is trying to use existing distribution centers in Garden Grove and Orange more efficiently.
“It was a straightforward business decision,” he said. “We had so many requests in certain areas just outside of Orange County, we decided to go back.”
The Register’s earlier effort to build circulation in Belmont Shore, a prosperous Long Beach community of 32,000, was set back as a result of management reorganizations at the paper.
Anderson said the decision to go back into Los Angeles County had nothing to do with the recent recapitalization of parent company Freedom, in which disgruntled members of the founding Hoiles family were offered a chance to sell out.
“We were able to use our existing distribution facilities in Garden Grove and Orange, so it made financial sense to do so,” he said. “We have no interest in going any further out than where we are currently.”
The Long Beach Press-Telegram, owned by the Los Angeles Newspaper Group unit of MediaNews Group Inc., long has dominated the Belmont Shore newspaper market.
“I’m always concerned about somebody trying to take subscriptions from me,” said Dennis Schaefer, the Press-Telegram’s circulation manager. “Our newspaper is very strong in that area, but it makes sense that people in that area would gravitate more to the Register.”
Laurie McDonald, home delivery manager for the Register, said demand for the paper had continued after it pulled out of Belmont Shore two years ago.
By early 2003, the paper made the decision to install single-copy racks.
The Register’s Monday to Saturday paid circulation for the six months ended March 31 was 310,000, down from 372,100 in 2000, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Circulation is up between 600 and 700 since its return to Belmont Shore, where it sells papers through stores, racks and home delivery.
David M. Cole, editor and publisher of NewsInc, a Pacifica-based trade newsletter, said the newspaper again will be able to focus its attention on growth now that the Hoiles’ squabbling has been resolved.
“The managers there have been fighting this rear guard action to do the best they can without spending money,” Cole said. “I think that restriction on spending money is now gone.”
Maio is a staff reporter with the Los Angeles Business Journal.
