Register-L.A. Times talks reported ( Southern California News )

/ocbiz.freedomblogging.com ^ | October 22nd, 2008, 6:39 pm | John Gittelsohn

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Financial Times reports, in a story with no named sources, that the owners of the Los Angeles Times are talking to the owners of the Orange County Register about merging operations.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related story...FR Thread:

US media in deep financial crisis (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Now that the Tribune Company has filed for Bankrupcy...this item from a blog is of interest:

What a Tribune Company bankruptcy could mean for California

***********************************EXCERPT*********************************

The announcement that the Tribune Company, owner of the LA Times, has filed for bankruptcy could have far reaching implications for the California newspaper industry -- and more importantly, on how news is reported on and delivered in the state and nationally. 

 Even before the announcement there was mounting speculation about what will happen to the numerous struggling newspapers in the state. A recent Financial Times report raised the prospect of some kind of merger or collaboration between the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, which is struggling, and the San Diego Union Tribune, which is also struggling and is up for sale.  

Rumors of a merger of the OC Register and the Times have been floating around for weeks.  The most intriguing rumor of all is that the LA Times and the OC Register might merge or come under the banner of Dean Singleton's MediaNews, as reported in the Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street item and noted in LAObserved. 

California is where easily the majority of MediaNews' daily newspaper holdings are -- and make it the dominant newspaper owner, by far, in the state. 

Singleton's approach  -- which is to buy up newspapers in a single market area, and then share reporters, editing staff, office space, and other costs -- may be the only new potentially viable business model to have emerged from the catastrophic restructuring that the media industry is currently undergoing.   This approach does not guarantee journalistic quality -- but it does offer strategy, albeit a despressing one, for how to cut costs. 

What's significant is that 29 of Singleton's daily newspapers are in Northern California,and only 16 are in Southern California -- where the majority of Californians live. 

Bringing together the LA Times, the San Diego Union Tribune and the Orange County Register would, in effect, replicate in Southern California Singleton's organizational structure in Northern California, but on a more ambitious scale than anything he has thus far attempted. 

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Mugwump]

GAAAH!!! NO! That’ll completely ruin the Register.

Imagine a Socialist-Libertarian rag with the emphasis on the socialist...

Sure, I find a lot to disagree with in some of the Register’s editorial positions (an aversion to “foreign entanglements” chief among them, but does anyone remember when the Denver Post started printing the Rocky Mountain News?

Bad for both. The political philosophies of those two papers are totally irreconcilable, IMO.

[SoConPubbie]

Whatever value the OC Register had left, whatever positive Libertarian views it espouse will be history if this ever happens.

This will just hasten it’s demise.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Oh ICK!!!!

[NathanR]

NOOOOoooo!!! Not the Register. (I don’t care about the Times)

[al baby]

I agree ick but man o man has the register gotten thin as of late

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related thread:

'Orange County Register' Laying Off 110 By Friday (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

A paper I give money to..Long Beach Press Telegram .....is one of the Media News Holdings....pretty much local unsavory news....and reprints from the AP.

[al baby]

hey is it windy down there today?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See #9....and #2...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Santa ANA for a few days followed by much cold coming...there was a thread the other day....not sure if I find it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Found it:

Rare 50 year Arctic Blast Sets Sights On Southern California.

[SkyDancer]

How many newspapers serve LA? I mean including all it’s environs .....

[SkyDancer]

Some papers are just a rehash printing of AP wire stories plus maybe some local stuff that’s old news by the time it’s printed ....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That’s what I get with the Long Beach Press Telegram....which is owned by MediaNews Group...which might pick up the loose SoCal properties...see #2.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Times is the Big one,...next is the Register...then many smaller ones ...many of which are owned by MediaNews and the Register's Freedom communitions and ...I assume McClatchy also...

Treating LA as Southern California...it all flows together.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Yes sir, it is windy here.

[SkyDancer]

So really in essence there’s only the one big one, the LA Times, then the Register - and they serve the whole LA area?

I wonder what the Times’ circulation is now, what it was before .... and how viable a company they are ... are they in trouble too?

[Mugwump]

The Times is owned by Tribune Communications (I think that’s what they’re called),

Tribune filed for bankruptcy yesterday