The Columbia Journalism Review published a story today on the newspaper I work for, the Orange County Register, our new owners, what they are trying to do and what they are up against.
Kushner, a 40-year-old former greeting-card executive with zero experience in newspapers, is running the most interesting—and important—experiment in journalism right now. His thesis is simple, but highly contrarian: Newspapers are dying in large part from self-inflicted wounds, and there’s money to be made in print, particularly from subscribers.
Read the whole thing here, it’s very much worth your time.
photo: Aaron Kushner. Jebb Harris/Orange County Register
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Interesting article, thanks for the link. The demise of newspapers is distressing to me, but I am an old fogey. It is a real shame what has happened to the Times, but the Register has never had anywhere to go but up. Except for their classical music coverage, of course!
What’s disturbing about the new Register is the university payola deal and this: “Kushner also caused a stir when he told his newsroom that it’s not its job to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.””
That ain’t cool.
Gary, thanks for reading the article. The university payola deal, as you call it, has been much discussed, around the newsroom and elsewhere. I guess I’m of two minds about it, though traditionally, of course, it would be a huge no-no. And I think he’s clarified and come back a little from the statement you quoted. He’s certainly hired a boatload of investigative reporters.
At our newsroom meeting yesterday, K. gave out some stats. One of them is that, in the number of pages we publish daily, we are lapping the LA Times.
As a subscriber, I’ve definitely seen an upswing in the quality of the paper. I hope it continues for a long time.
Tim, That’s nice to hear and heartening indeed. I’m going to give the Register another chance. I get the Sunday edition now.