Paper Says Focus on Region Is What Readers Want; Advertisers Watch for Fallout
The street fighting may be over between longtime rivals The Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times. But both sides say the war still is on.
N. Christian Anderson, Register publisher and chief executive, said the two dailies have battled since the late 1960s, when the Times built its plant in Costa Mesa. And despite the Times’ recent pullback from city-by-city coverage in OC, Anderson said not much else has changed.
“The height of the battle is whatever day today happens to be,” Anderson said. “From a circulation and positioning perspective, there is no letup in efforts by the Los Angeles Times to claim market leadership in Orange County.”
On May 6, the Times unveiled a few changes in its Orange County edition, including renaming the B section of the paper, formerly called “Orange County,” to the “California” section.
Besides ditching regular city council and school board coverage in favor of state, regional and big local stories (such as the El Toro airport controversy), the section includes an average of four extra pages a day. The paper’s A section, meanwhile, added two full pages of national and world news each day. Other changes include more stories on the front page and more briefs inside.
The reorganization comes a few months after the Times cancelled its 14 “Our Times” block-by-block news sections in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties and cut about 170 jobs in a bid to become more profitable and focus on regional, national and global news. That change was part of an overall push by The Tribune Co., which purchased the Times last year, to cut costs.
The Times continues to publish regional editions, such as one for Orange County, but the business move,and now format changes,has fueled speculation that the Times may eventually pull out of Orange County altogether,a point adamantly disputed by Times executives.
“We are not pulling back on Orange County,” said Dean Baquet, managing editor at the Los Angeles Times. “We want to be aggressive.”
By adding space to the California section, Baquet said, the paper includes more stories on OC, as well as regional and state issues to offer readers “some kind of perspective.”
When the Times did away with Our Times, Baquet said, it made a business decision to skip the “very, very minute local coverage.”
“That, I think, isn’t what people expect from the LA Times,” he said. “We’re a different kind of paper.”
Plus, Baquet said, the block-by-block coverage was “distracting” for the Times and “it ate up resources that should be covering things readers want.”
The paper now focuses on larger local issues, such as big controversies and “aggressive” regional, state and global news.
“We can’t put our resources in the block-by block coverage, and it’s hard to do both,” Baquet said. “I’ve never seen a paper do both.”
The Register unveiled its own redesign in March, redoing its look and typography in an effort to make the paper more “reader friendly,” but sticking with detailed local coverage.
Even with the changes at the Times, the Register’s Anderson says “there is plenty of competition.”
“Because the competition is not just about local news,” he said.
It’s too early to tell how the changes will play out with advertisers in the OC edition of the Times, such as South Coast Plaza, according to Cathy Sosa, media director at Santa Ana-based DGWB.
Sosa said she looks at circulation numbers for high-end ZIP codes across the county. The Times, she said, has a slight edge over the Register in newer, upscale neighborhoods in South County, much of Newport Beach and parts of Costa Mesa. Sosa said the Register holds the edge in North County, including high-end areas. Exact figures were not available.
“If I don’t see falloff in those key zip codes, that tells me that’s what the readers want,” Sosa said. “And I probably wouldn’t change my strategy.”
Plus, Sosa notes that the format change “is very subtle” and therefore readers may not even notice for six months or more.
“From a consumer standpoint, it may not be an issue,” Sosa said. “From a media standpoint, you really do have to look at the numbers and what’s happening even more so than you did before, to make sure you’re still on the right track.”
Though advertising may not take a hit, Anthony Fellow, a professor of communications and head of the journalism program at California State University, Fullerton, says that the Times’ coverage has,at least in its fight with the Register in Orange County. Despite what Times officials say, Fellow argues that the paper’s coverage in OC,and in San Gabriel, where he lives,is noticeably lighter on local news.
“The Times is fighting a battle with the Orange County Register and the Orange County Register is winning in that area,” Fellow said.
The Register historically has posted circulation gains in the past few decades. With the exception of a surge in the late-1980s and early-1990s, the Times has decreased in OC.
“They’ve reduced staff because of circulation declines,” Fellow said of the Times. “It’s a business. They have to look at the bottom line, which is money.”
Both papers have cut back on staff in the past year or so, though Anderson attributes the Register’s downsizing to the softening in the economy.
Fellow also noted that papers redesign to attract readers. However, he said the Times’ format changes, with the exception of the renaming of the B section, are so subtle that “if readers blinked they would have missed” the switch.
“Frankly, I do not see the Times’ new format having any impact on its circulation or the circulation of the Register,” Fellow said.
The Times’ focus on the big picture is in line with a growing trend among other newspapers, according to Fellow. He said that papers no longer zone or have separate sections for different communities. (The Register, however, still maintains a city-by-city briefs section in its Metro section).
“We are moving toward a more regional and national coverage,” he said. n
