Beginning August 19, Long Beach will welcome its newest source of news, the Long Beach Register, a daily subscription-based newspaper to be overseen and published by the Orange County Register.
The six-days-a-week, 16-page daily will be wrapped around the day’s edition of Orange County Register and will be delivered to homes and at 450 news racks in Long Beach, Lakewood, Cerritos, Artesia and Signal Hill, the Register announced last week.
A 20-person staff will be headed by former publisher of the Press-Telegram, Ian Lamont, and several other Press-Telegram writers. Paul Eakins, the Press-Telegram’s former city editor will serve as the paper’s editor. He just finished helping the Register with the launch of The Current, a new five-day-a-week community newspaper for Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.
“We are launching the Long Beach Register because the people of Long Beach deserve a great newspaper,” said Eric Spitz, owner and President of Freedom Communications, Orange County Register‘s parent company. “Long Beach is a hidden gem on the California coast, and we want to support this great community by providing essential and valuable information about its key developments, events and people.”
According to the Orange County Register, 10 of the pages in the Long Beach Register will be dedicated to local news while the other six will focus on schools, with a particular emphasis on LBUSD sports.
The announcement marks yet another interesting move from neighboring Orange County media which has been slowly taking on the Long Beach market in the years since Los Angeles County media has dropped its interest in the southernmost city in its jurisdiction. The Los Angeles Times used to have a Long Beach section in its Sunday edition every week but has not done so since 1995, though former Long Beach beat reporter Ruben Vives, who still writes for the Times, continues to cover the city’s regionally significant news.
The OC Weekly, particularly since Gustavo Arellano has been at the helm of editor, has largely taken on Long Beach for the alternative weeklies. It often has covers dedicated to Long Beach issues and people, such as mayoral hopeful Gerrie Schipske, who appeared on the cover during Pride week, and its music section often features Long Beach bands.
With its Long Beach launch, the Orange County Register hopes to build on its 2600 daily subscribers in Long Beach and will add to the city’s already-existing print publications. The Press-Telegram, though described as “retrenched,” still has some 60,000 daily print subscribers while the Gazettes continues to offer free weekly newspapers delivered to residents doorsteps and the Post offers a free monthly available at more than 500 locations citywide. Long Beach Business Journal and the Signal Tribune also have print editions.
During its initial run, copies of the Long Beach Register will be free for sampling. Similar to the Orange County Register, however, all online content for the Long Beach Register will remain behind a paywall and is available to subscribers only.