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The Register will "soft launch" its new Los Angeles edition on April 16, the mother ship in Orange County announced today. Parent Freedom Communications "also will roll out more than a dozen community newspapers across Los Angeles County in coming weeks," a story says in the OC Register. The editor of the LA Register will be Ron Sylvester, known around the OC newsroom as one of the staffers closest to new OC Register editor Rob Curley. Reporters have already been making introduction calls on their beats and showing up at City Hall.
The flackage behind today's story talks about the Register providing "a unique mix of news stories" in Los Angeles and "unique political perspective" on the opinion page. Unique? Aaron Kushner will be at a Zocalo event tonight at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Maybe he will address the uniqueness of it all. Here's the release:
Freedom Communications today announced April 16 as the soft launch date for the Los Angeles Register, a locally focused, community-building daily newspaper serving Los Angeles County. At launch, single copies will be available at over 7,500 retail and news rack locations across Los Angeles for $1.50 weekdays and $2 on Saturdays and Sundays, with home delivery to follow for under $1/day and $19.99 for an initial four week subscription.
In addition to introducing a new and different brand of daily newspaper to Los Angeles, the Register is extending its commitment to bring community journalism to one of the nation's most vibrant and diverse cities even further by launching more than a dozen community newspapers serving cities across Los Angeles County. The Register's community editions will provide readers with deeper town-by-town coverage and original reporting.The Los Angeles Register will focus on daily coverage of local news, business, politics, education, nonprofits, high school, college and professional sports, the arts, entertainment and food. It will offer a unique mix of news stories, from watchdog reporting to features that inspire.
Opinion pages will bring an alternative voice and unique political perspective, and emphasize constructive debate and civil dialogue on the issues most vital to Los Angeles County. Opinion columnists will clearly support the protection of individual liberties and freedoms you possess that enable you to develop your community, grow your business and live life to the fullest.
"The Los Angeles Register will deliver community-building information about local activities, people and issues that impact our lives every day," said Aaron Kushner, co-owner of Freedom Communications and Publisher of the Los Angeles Register. "Newspapers play an incredibly vital role in the social fabric of our lives- informing, inspiring and connecting us with our community. The Los Angeles Register and our community newspapers serving Los Angeles will focus on creating deep and meaningful local connections, as it is this type of bond and mission that helps subscribers, advertisers and our community itself thrive."
“Los Angeles is one of the most exciting, engaging, mysterious and newsworthy cities on the planet, full of promise, challenges and everyday heroes,” said Donna Wares, managing editor of the Register. “Los Angeles deserves a newspaper dedicated to revealing that amazing local narrative. That’s our mission. That’s what the Los Angeles Register will strive to deliver every day.”
For more information on becoming a charter subscriber, visit www.LosAngelesRegister.com.
Daily subscribers of the Los Angeles Register will automatically become members of Register Connect, which provides free benefits and experiences such as free four-packs of professional baseball and soccer tickets, amusement park and concert tickets, aquarium passes, meet-and-greet opportunities with celebrities, and the Golden Envelope gift cheques that the subscribers designate to the local nonprofit institutions.
Long Beach residents who subscribe to the Long Beach Register will begin receiving copies of the Los Angeles Register.
As an extension of its daily service in Los Angeles, the Register is introducing more than a dozen new monthly community newspapers serving specific towns within Los Angeles County- from Manhattan Beach to Malibu, and from the San Fernando Valley to Pomona. Freedom will announce additional details on each community newspaper launch – including the newspapers’ names and cities they serve – in coming weeks.
Easy Reader, a community-based publication group with a 40-year history serving Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach communities, is the first of the community newspaper portfolio to expand its service within Los Angeles County.
On Feb. 27, Easy Reader debuted in a new broadsheet format. Easy Reader also produces two expanded editions each month that serve Palos Verdes and El Segundo. Both editions will also adopt Easy Reader’s new broadsheet format this month. Two new standalone editions carrying the Easy Reader name will debut later this month serving Santa Monica and the northern Los Angeles coastal communities, and another serving Torrance.
“We are making history,” said Ron Sylvester, Editor of the Los Angeles Register. “We are so encouraged by the warm welcome the Los Angeles Register already has received as we meet and discuss the focus and mission of the newspaper in the communities we’ll serve.”
The Register is actively initiating public discussions with civic, business, nonprofit and community leaders about the upcoming launches. On March 10, Kushner will participate in a Zócalo Public Square panel discussion titled “What kind of newspaper does Los Angeles deserve?” The event is at 7:30 p.m. at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles County expansion is the latest move as part of a larger expansion plan by Kushner and co-owner Eric Spitz. Since purchasing Freedom in 2012, Kushner and Spitz have nearly doubled staff in the Register newsroom, launched the Long Beach Register as a new daily newspaper in August, purchased The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif. in November and launched an enhanced edition with more original reporting plus a new Inland SoCal Register section in January, and launched the Desert Enterprise serving Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley in February.
