OC Register Owner Launching New LA Newspaper

Freedom Communications, owner of the Orange County Register, is launching a new daily newspaper in Los Angeles.

The new daily’s publisher, Aaron Kushner, tells the OC Register, “We are going to bring our fabulous brand of local journalism and political perspective to a very large market.”

The Los Angeles Register goes on sale Wednesday for a $1.50 ($2.00 on weekends) at several thousand retail locations. The paper will begin home delivery next month.

This is not Freedom Communications’ first foray into the LA area. Last August it launched the Long Beach Register, a multi-page supplement which wrapped around the OC Register for Long Beach subscribers. The LB Register started with a staff of 20.

The Los Angeles Register will live up to the company’s “libertarian editorial tradition” with coverage that aims to “emphasize constructive debate and civil dialogue on the issues most vital to Los Angeles County.”

Long Beach has not been the company’s only expansion. Last November Freedom Communications purchased the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, the Inland Empire’s largest paper, for $27 million. Freedom also recently purchased the Easy Reader tabloid inHermosa. The paper was expanded to a broadsheet and is distributed up and down the coast from Malibu toTorrance.

The new LA Register will have a staff located in LA which will be supplemented by input from Hermosa and the San Fernando Valley.