Digital First Media to Buy OC Register and Riverside Press Enterprise
Digital First Media, owner of the Los Angeles Daily News, will purchase Freedom Communications’ Orange County Register and Riverside Press Enterprise.
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Digital First Media, owner of the Los Angeles Daily News, will purchase Freedom Communications’ Orange County Register and Riverside Press Enterprise.
Industry observers asked by Portada note that it is only a matter of time until the Los Angeles Times, owned by Tribune Publishing, buys financially troubled Freedom Communications or, at least, its most coveted asset the Orange County Register. Why is Tribune Publishing interested in Freedom’s assets and what would a consolidation mean particularly to Hispanic media?. 4 key questions we look at.
Freedom Communications, the parent company of the Orange County Register and the Riverside Press-Enterprise, is laying off about 100 non-newsroom employees and eliminating unprofitable publications such as OC Register Magazine today.
Aaron Kushner, CEO of Freedom Communications, said that he will evaluate “in the next few weeks” whether the Los Angeles Register can have a viable future as a daily. The Los Angeles Register was launched in April of this year in the Los Angeles, CA, market, where it competes with other dailies including the Los Angeles Times.
While most English-language newspapers are retrenching, it is striking how time and time again we get news from Hispanic targeted newspaper publishers who are expanding circulation or even launching new publications. Earlier this week we reported that Freedom is launching “Unidos en el Sur de California” with a 300,000 plus circulation. Here three more examples: Hoy’s Los Angeles new weekly Hoy Deportes, CentroTampa and AIM Media Texas’ El Extra in the Rio Grande Valley.
Freedom Communications, the company led by Aaron Kushner, who is big believer in print media, is launching Unidos en el Sur de California, a new Spanish-language weekly newspaper for Southern California. The new newspaper with a circ. of 320,000 plus is scheduled to debut Friday March 21. Since it was acquired by a private equity Group, Freedom Communications is practically the only major U.S. media company who is heavily investing in expanding its print media properties. This is the first Hispanic specific project they are undertaking.