Register Trims Sales Effort Outside County

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The Orange County Register plans to eliminate single-copy sales in areas outside of Orange County, a move that comes soon after the Register decided to eliminate home delivery outside of the county.

“We want to ensure a very clear focus on growing our reach in Orange County and not be tempted to add more readership farther and farther from where we serve our advertisers’ interests,” said Register Publisher N. Christian Anderson.

Sales at 1,050 retailers and 1,800 news racks will be phased out, according to Anderson. He would not disclose the paper’s savings.

The move will reduce the Register’s overall circulation, Anderson said, but he couldn’t give exact figures. “We won’t know until we submit the publisher’s statement in October” to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Anderson said.

The Register experienced a drop in circulation after its decision to stop home delivery to areas outside of Orange County. For the period ended March 31, the audit bureau reported that the Register’s total daily paid circulation was 356,079 daily and 413,727 Sundays. The bureau reported that 15,515 of the daily circulation and 18,764 of the Sunday total were single-copy sales outside of Orange County.

However, Anderson pointed out that the Register has “always done circulation comparisons based on Orange County circulation, not total circulation.”

In Orange County, the Register has a circulation lead over the Los Angeles Times of 74 percent on daily and 52 percent on Sunday, according to the Register.

The Times does not publicly disclose or break out its Orange County circulation numbers.

For the period ended March 31, total daily circulation at the Times, including all editions, fell 4.8 percent, to 1,058,494. Saturday circulation fell 4.4 percent, to 951,547, while Sunday circulation increased less than 0.5 percent, to 1,391, 343.

“Our future is based on increased readership to better serve our advertisers and build community, and that means that not all readership is based on paid circulation,” Anderson said.

The move comes at a time when the Times has pulled back in Orange County by paring local coverage in favor of regional news, although the paper disputes that perception.

When asked if the Register’s circulation cuts means its battle with the Times has cooled as a result of the Times’ changes, Anderson said no.

“It has everything to do with focus on Orange County. Remember that when we compared circulation numbers with the Los Angeles Times, we used Orange County-only numbers, as did they,” Anderson said.

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