Although most newspapers have shut down bureaus across the country over the last several years, the Orange County Register is defying the trend by opening a Washington, D.C., bureau in April. Heading up the bureau will be former Register reporter Cathy Taylor.
The OC Register has adopted a print focus ever since Aaron Kushner and Eric Spitz purchased the Register from Freedom Communications last summer. But Kushner and Spitz aren’t the only newspaper publishers who still believe that expanding the print product will sell.
The Albany Times Union recently reported it was in the final stages of installing a brand new state-of-the-art printing press, improving the quality of the newspaper. But the newspaper isn’t stopping there. It will also feature an expanded weather package in color, daily TV listings, full-color daily comics, an expanded weekend automotive section and a new consumer section. In addition, the paper reports that business, education and health news will also be expanded, while the paper’s Perspective section will go from being a weekly Sunday section to a daily section.
A new printing press technology has made it so that the Columbus Dispatch was able to launch a compact formatted newspaper earlier this year. According to the International Business Times, the print technology produces three sheets per revolution instead of the usual two, resulting in a smaller product that is printed faster. But like the Times Union, printing isn’t the only new feature. In January, IBTimes.com reported that the newspaper was relaunching its standalone business sections, as well as a seasonal standalone section covering college football for Sunday’s paper.
In Tacoma, Wash., the News Tribune launched a new design last November, reported Editor & Publisher. The idea was to design a paper for “hard-core newspaper readers,” executive editor Karen Peterson told E&P. The redesign included a new flag nearing the paper’s name, a redesigned header picture, new headline type and more prominent type assigned to more important stories, as well as a new reader feedback section.
Meanwhile, the OC Register still manages to take the lead with all the changes it implemented in the last six months. Some of the paper’s more recent additions include the addition of the newly acquired OC Metro and OC Family, which will debut next month. According to OCRegister.com, the new inserts will be rebranded as OC Register Metro and OC Register Family. In addition, a new bimonthly publication called OC Register Magazine will also be distributed on Mondays.
The newspaper also recently featured a 12-page NCAA Tournament special section. Additionally, the paper will launch three standalone weekly sections about local universities starting in early April. A new fashion section recently debuted in the paper, and several of its community papers have undergone redesigns. The list of developments and expansions go on, including the addition to newsroom staff.
In a previous report on the OC Register’s growth, Poynter Institute analyst Rick Edmonds noted to inVocus that the print product may have needed replenishing after the widespread cutbacks that hit the news industry several years ago. But even if that wasn’t the case, he believes it’s an interesting experiment.
Regardless, this all goes to show that not all publishers believe that the end of print is nigh. Some are still looking to a future in which it is a valued and central part of the news product.
–Katrina M. Mendolera
