By Aaron Kushner, new publisher for The Orange County Register, is ruffling a few feathers with his business decisions.
After laying off hundreds of employees and replacing them with an even higher number of new reporters, many wondered where the money for all the new employees was coming from.
In light of that, we’re not really surprised that all these people are being laid off.
This situation is seen in many businesses, as well as sports, where a new owner comes in and eliminates the existing staff. It’s a financial move on Kushner’s part that many of us expected he’d do. And it comes as no surprise that almost an entire new staff has moved into the OC Register.
By hiring younger people who are naturally going to be more tech savvy, the new staff brings in a practicality for the advancement in technology in journalism.
The irony is that the Kushner hired on new, young reporters to replace the existing print writers not to introduce a tech savvy wave, but to continue work in print media.
Kushner is pushing the print media, making online subscriptions nearly the same price as home delivery print subscriptions.
This also creates distress in the newsroom, hurting the morale of the staff. During the week of layoffs, members of OC Register staff could not have been so much concerned with news but more so with saving their jobs.
The expansion of the OC Register into Los Angeles also has us confused. The new reporters that were hired into OC Register will be moved to LA Register once it’s launched. The city of Los Angeles already has the highly successful Los Angeles Times newspaper; how long will the LA register survive?
That’s the same as a new newspaper trying to get a footing in New York against Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
The Long Beach Register is already losing content to ad space. The Long Beach Register usually runs eight to ten pages ads have taken precedent over the quality articles in the pages.
Is this good for news or bad for news? Will this hurt the quality of the paper? And would this hurt the amount of future journalists applying to the OC Register?
The bottom line is that although newspapers are meant to serve the public good, running a publication is still a business.
Sometimes tough business decisions need to be made. While its unfortunate, this might just be a hiccup in the new business model Kushner is attempting to build but it may just be too soon to judge.
On one side, the staff has grown to 300 employees even with the layoffs. Its tough to know if this is a good call because we don’t know if the editors were laid off due to performance or if Kushner wanted to get rid of the existing editors to pay lower salaries for incoming employees.
The OC Register is still far from dying but with the hiring and firing spree, its affects on the content and their attempt to expand in the midst of it all, it has put them on rocky ground.
