L.A. Newspaper Group Debuts Entertainment Section
By CLAUDIA PESCHIUTTA
Staff Reporter
The Los Angeles Newspaper Group has pooled the resources of its local publications and launched a daily entertainment section known as U.
“What we’ve done is try to capitalize on being in L.A.,” said Daily News Features Editor Sharyn Betz, who oversees U’s content. “We’re sitting in the largest entertainment production capital of the world and we weren’t all…producing a lot of entertainment.”
Other papers in the group running the section are the Long Beach Press-Telegram, Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Whittier Daily News, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and San Bernardino County Sun.
U replaced the L.A. Life section in the Daily News and took the place of lifestyle or entertainment-oriented sections in the group’s other papers.
Much of the content, such as celebrity profiles and movie reviews, is shared among all the papers, but each U section has some local material. It provides more entertainment coverage without the cost of hiring more reporters, editors or other staff. Executives of the privately held L.A. Newspaper Group would not discuss financial information about the project.
The move by the group’s parent company, William Dean Singleton’s MediaNews Group Inc., is likely to cut costs in the long run. As a group-wide section, U has a combined circulation of 600,000, making it one of the nation’s largest daily entertainment sections and a more attractive option for advertisers.
“I suspect that they’re trying to take advantage of their cluster,” said analyst John Morton of Morton Research Inc., a newspaper consulting firm. “It is a way of sharing resources in a much more cost-effective way.”
Under the ownership of MediaNews, the cluster’s largely suburban newspapers have been slowly combining editorial and advertising functions. The combined Sunday Travel section has grown significantly since it was launched several years ago.
Given its universal appeal, entertainment lends itself to regional coverage. Readers of the Pasadena Star-News or Ontario’s Inland Valley Daily Bulletin are just as likely to want to read a profile on actress Sissy Spacek or a review of the latest hit movie. But readers also can find such content in countless publications, on the Internet and on television, radio and cable.
“The challenge for these papers will be whether they can run enough stories that are of importance to local readers,” said Bryce Nelson, a journalism professor at USC’s Annenberg School.
Differentiating U from other entertainment offerings could help the Daily News and other L.A. Newspaper Group publications attract advertisers looking for a new audience. The Daily News doesn’t have a lot of subscribers who also take the Times, so an advertiser looking for good coverage in the market will buy space in both U and in Calendar.
Looking to attract entertainment advertising, the L.A. Newspaper Group ran a teaser campaign for U in the Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety leading up to the section’s Feb. 1 launch. “We’re trying to be as creative as we can with the budget that we have to deal with,” said Bill Van Landingham, director of marketing at the Daily News.
U’s launch has affected the way the group does business with some of its larger advertisers. For example, venues with a regional appeal, such as Staples Center and the Pantages Theatre, can no longer run their ads in specific L.A. Newspaper Group publications. They have to buy space in every U section. To keep from losing advertisers with this approach, the group has lowered its rates, executives said.
“Anyone that’s a marketwide account, their cost per multiple is not the same as a community account, so it’s a great value,” said Betty Gehrer, advertising entertainment manager for the group.
While she hasn’t seen any advertisers pull back because of the change, Gehrer conceded that some are reconsidering their buys.
