DAILY PAPER ON COAST ARISES FROM A SHOPPER [The New York Times, 14 Aug 1979]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300290001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 14, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

Daily Paper on Coast
Arises From a Shopper
Special to The New York Times
VAN NUYS, Calif. - On Sept. 10, The
Valley News will start publishing seven
days a week. It would be an insignifi-
cant date in publishing were it not for
the size of the thriving suburban news-
paper and the fact that the area it
serves includes the populous San Fer-
nando Valley, about half of the City of
Los Angeles and the prime suburban
readership of The Los Angeles Times.
"The Valley News could give The Los
Angeles Times a run for its money,"
mused one editor at The Times's after-
noon competitor, The Los Angeles Her-
ald Examiner. "I think The Valley
News wants to be The Bergen Record
or the Newsday of the West."
every day except Monday and with half
of its subscribers converted to paying
customers - has become the beach-
head for the Tribune Company's West
Coast suburban newspapers. They in-
clude The Escondido Times Advocate,
an evening paper outside San Diego
with 33,000 in circulation; The Penin-
sula Times Tribune with 66,000 in circu-
lation in the Palo Alto area between
San Francisco and San Jose, and the bi-
weekly Ledger with a circulation of
72,000 in Montrose, Calif., just east of
Los Angeles.
"The most dramatic growth in news-
papers today is in the suburbs," said
Ken Noble, an analyst with Paine Web-
ber Jackson & Curtis Inc., the securi-
ties firm. "And the trend among the
major newspaper publishers like the
Tribune has been to bite off specialized
When the Chicago-based Tribune . chunks of the market by acquisition or
Company, publisher of The Chicago by developing special sections. On the
Tribune and The Daily News in New whole, suburban newspapers have
York, bought The Van Nuys Valley been attractive investments. In the
News and Green Sheet in 1973, it was a current economic climate they have
four-day-a-week free shopper with a been doing better than urban newspa-
280,000 circulation that some called the pers."
world's largest throwaway. When the Tribune Corn a"nv be a
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hopper on Coast Becomes a Daily Paper
Continued From Page DI
estward thrust in 1913, it picked off
table local papers in choice demo-
-iic sections of the Sain Francisco,,
Angeles and San Diego markets
e the major metropolitan papers
Door distribution and did minimal
coverage.
long the healthier of the newspa-
owners, the Tribune Company
owns eight daily newspapers and
It a half dozen other publications.
978, the company, which is pri-
g held, earned $57.5 million, up 3
Bnt from the preceding year. Last
's earnings were hurt by a strike at
Daily News, which cost $25 million,
Dared with an operating net of $111
on.
-entrates on Sun Belt
when the Tribune Company started
nding, it naturally locked for mar-
that were going to grow," J. Scott
sidt, president and general man-
of The Valley News, said in an in-
ew. "With few exceptions," he
it "has concentrated in the Sun
states of California and Florida,
-e the suburban population is capa-
I supporting a second newspaper."
Schmidt, once The Tribune's fea-
r managing editor, was dispatched
^e Valley News in Jully, 1975, to re-
p the paper.
e Los Angeles Times, with daily
^lation of 1 million, and The Valley
s, with a circulation of 240,000, say
do not compete for news coverage.
according to the market research
of Yankelovich, Skelly & White
The Valley News is now the domi-
newspaper in Los Angeles's larg-
prime market, the middle- and
_r middle-class San Fernando Val-
which has a population exceeding
pillion.
# the San Fernando Valley were a
" Mr. Schmidt said, "it would be
ration's sixth largest metropolitan
- larger than DetroiLt."
dty-five percent of the households
he Valley News's circulation area
ch includes Burbank and Studio
among other communities in the
Fernando Valley and adjoining
s) receive the paper. In comparl-
The Los Angeles Times is taken by
rcent of the households in the area
the Herald Examiner by 10 per-
(The Herald Examiner's total cir-
m is 303,000 daily.) And in the
an areas The Valley News
e outside the `San Fernando Val-
a6 re Is no contest.
4 Lineage
shopper called The Green
Tee he Valley News supported it-
041:, ivertising. Building on that ad
1,
,. '9w ranks 32d in the nation in
lineage, with 81) million lines.
,ale-~, the 10th-largest classified
,ons'r in the country," said Torn
sa\e
nearly 2 million lines of national adver-
tising.
Editorially, the strength of suburban
newspapers is local coverage. "The
battle is to capture the local flavor,"
said Al Reynolds, who Is marketing
services manager of the Tribune's San
Francisco Bay penninsula papers, The
Penninsula Times Tribune and the
weekly Valley Journal. "There has
been a gap between the small newspa-
pers and the large metropolitan dailies
which cried for a sophisticated journal-
istic approach to local coverage."
The Valley News has attempted to
keep some of the flavor of the old
paper, including a green stripe down
the side of the front page as a reminder
of the days when the front page was
green. The front page seldom carries a
national or international piece that
does not directly affect local residents.
Fifty-two high schools get their names
in the paper, and there is a neighbor-
hood column, which, although much
shorter than in the old green sheet
days, still provides information on ka-
rate tournaments and Planned Parent-
hood classes. New sections on business,
health, fashion and food began this
year and have broadened the paper to
64 pages daily and 120 pages on Sunday.
Viewing The World Inside Out
"We look at the world from the inside
out," said Bruce Winters, editor of The
Valley News. Formerly with The Balti-
more Sun, he joined The Valley News in
1977. "Sacramento and City Hall, those
are our foreign bureaus."
Although the Tribune Company has
not released investment figures on the
colt of making over The Valley News,
Mr. Schmidt acknowledged that it is
"an enormous investment." The ex-
pense budget alone has increased by
$18 million since 1975. By Sept. 1 the
editorial side of the operation will be in-
creased to 150 people or more from
about 45 four years ago..
The key to the paper's future is its ef-
fort to maintain circulation while
changing the paper to a daily paid
form. For years, many of the people on
the paper's circulation list received the
paper for free and threw it away. In
1975 only about 54,000 of the 280,000
ciruclation paid for the paper. Now
about half, or 112,000, are paid sub-
scribers - it costs 15 cents daily and 35
cents Sunday - as it phases out free
subscriptions, and the paper has 2,900
carriers taking it door to door. "That's
hardly what I call being chucked," Mr.
Winters.said. _ _, ...._. _ __ ?.. .
Britain's Output Up
and was 4.4 perk
the Valley News reached said.
The New YorkTtmes/Dav1 i
In the newsroom of The Valley News are, from left, Bruce Winter, edito Scott Schmidt, president, and Thomas Culligan, executive vice president.
PERSONNEL
RECRUITER
(NORTH NEW JERSEY AREA)
Growing retail chain requires
Individual with 1-3 years ex-
perience. Must be fully familiar
with techniques of employee
selection. Prefer degree In
personnel or psychology.
Company car provided.
submit resume with salary his-
tory and requirements to:
Z7469 TIMES
(Equal Opportunlry Employer M/I ry