Increasing the voices of political diversity is one of the missions of California’s newest newspaper, the Los Angeles Register. Did I just write that a new newspaper is opening in this digital age? The owners of Freedom Communications, publishers of the Orange County Register and other newspapers, launched their swim against the tide Wednesday when the first edition of the Los Angeles Register hit the streets.
Owners of the paper were direct in expressing their model for success: report on local communities and offer diverse voices – especially a different take on the world from the neighborhood behemoth, Los Angeles Times.
Freedom Communications co-owners Eric Spitz and Aaron Kushner wrote in a front page column, “The Register brand has stood for free markets and individual liberties since 1906, and we will carry this tradition forward.”
Indeed, the newspaper’s first editorial stated, “The accepted wisdom about L.A. is that it is politically and ideologically monolithic. That Angelenos are almost exclusively Democrats. And that they are almost entirely liberal. But, just as L.A. is recognized for its ethnic and cultural diversity, so, too, should it be for its political and philosophical diversity.”
That idea will be tested in the coming months but it is a good thing to add more voices to the marketplace of ideas.
The editorial page made it clear where it stood on tax and spend issues: “We favor free-market economic and fiscal policy and believe government – at all levels – should exercise budgetary prudence and restraint.”
The charge the paper intends to put into state and local political discussions could be seen by the lineup of letter writers in the initial Letters to the Editor section.
Gov. Jerry Brown wrote in welcoming the paper, “diversity of opinion is the hallmark of a healthy news media.” L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti wrote that, “great journalism is driven by strong competition.” Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said that Los Angeles was ready for a fresh voice to cover diverse regions. Former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa offered in his letter a welcome to a city “desperately looking for a newspaper to chronicle” local happenings—a clear shot at the Times, perhaps?
The Los Angeles Register will offer something different. Now we’ll have to see if that’s what newspaper readers are looking for.