Freedom's 'OC Post' Cut to Three Days -- Merged With Weekly

Posted Thursday, January 17, 2008 12:00 am

By: Joe Strupp Just 18 months after launching OC Post, its six-day, color tabloid paper, The Orange County Register of Santa Ana, Calif., is pulling back on the idea, cutting its distribution to three days and merging it with the weekly Irvine World News.

In a Web story, the Register sought to spin the move as an expansion of the weekly paper, stating, "the expanded newspaper will contain all the Irvine news and information now published each Thursday in the Irvine World News, plus news from around Orange County and around the world. It will return to its original tabloid format and include more color photos and advertisements."

Register Publisher Terry Horne said in a story the change was "the first in a series of Register initiatives designed to provide deeper news coverage and increased penetration at a hyper-local level, something...advertisers have said they want."

The new combined Irvine World News/OC Post will begin publishing on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays on Feb. 12, the story said.

"Our research and experience with OC Post tells us readers enjoy the quick-read format, and the merged OC Post and Irvine World News will maintain its easy-to-read layout with even more local content and an expanded distribution," Horne said in a statement

The Register also stated, "February's change ends an 18-month newspaper experiment targeting busy Orange County residents who want local news, but in a more compact, quicker-to-read format. The Post featured short stories, typically four or five inches long, and the pages were punctuated with color and graphics." Horne also said other Register initiatives will be announced in coming weeks, "including details on plans to convert the Local news section into six geographic zones filled with more locally relevant content for each area."

The OC Post cutback comes just months after the surprise departure of former Register publisher N. Christian Anderson in August 2007. OC Post, the Register, and the Irvine World News are owned by Freedom Communications.

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Freedom's 'OC Post' Cut to Three Days -- Merged With Weekly

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