OC Register hiring spree

[SnarkShark]

I don't know if this has been brought up before, but do you guys know about what is going on at the OC Register? From what I've heard, it has expanded its staff from under 200 to almost 350 since August with a lot of those being sports hires.

How is this happening when everything else is going down in flames?

 

[Moderator1]

Not sure of the numbers or the reason but I think the owners have decided on an approach of trying to make money by making a better product. Novel concept, to be sure.

 

[mediaguy]

Who have they hired in sports? First I'm hearing on this.

 

[SnarkShark]

http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/10/the-orange-county-register-is-hiring-dozens-of-reporters-focusing-on-print-first-expansion/

 

[NDJournalist]

Loveeeeee this news.

 

[steveu]

Not sure of the numbers or the reason but I think the owners have decided on an approach of trying to make money by making a better product. Novel concept, to be sure.

I think OCR's doing an outstanding job with this concept. It seems like the advertising dollars are following. I subscribe to the OCR's e-edition ($5.25 per month isn't bad at all) and the papers have a lot of content.

Like everyone else, I'm sure the question is can they keep this up, but the beginning results look promising.

 

[Captain Obvious]

Loveeeeee this news.

You're not getting one of those jobs.

 

[da man]

Who have they hired in sports? First I'm hearing on this.

MileHigh, for one.

 

[da man]

This isn't new news. I'm pretty sure we've had a thread on this before.

Edit: Ah, yes, here it is: http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/3514974/

 

[NDJournalist]

Loveeeeee this news.

You're not getting one of those jobs.

Obviously not at this point in my career. I was simply remarking about how it is good for our industry.

 

[SnarkShark]

Here's the numbers I've heard...

Subscriptions have gone up 3 percent even though the cost has gone up from $50 to $350 a year (Angels and Ducks ticket giveaways have helped, I think). They've also bought or created 23 weeklies that are only available to subscribers. There is also a paywall on the web site.

 

[slartibartfast]

A very stringent paywall at that. It's an all-or-nothing deal: Either you are part of the (paying) Register family, or you're not. You either pay $1 a day to the Register (for print and digital; there is no "digital only" option), or you get nothing. Only those in the family get any of the goodies. Ken Doctor over at Newsonomics <a href="http://newsonomics.com/the-newsonomics-of-the-orange-county-registers-contrarian-paywall/">has done a good job breaking down the numbers</a>.

Will it work? Lord, I hope so. But the strategy is not going to create some kind of anti-digital force-field around Orange County. The people there like their Amazon and their Facebook and their iPads and their Flipboard-free-online news just as much as anyone else does. Kushner is running a live, and very expensive, experiment testing the "news wants to be free" theory.

 

[wicked]

I think OCR's doing an outstanding job with this concept. It seems like the advertising dollars are following.

What are you basing this on? Ad pages? Rumor?

 

[steveu]

Actual papers... the e-edition I read seems to have a lot of ads. Of course, I don't know what they're charging for the ads, but the weekday editions seem to be thicker than most other cities.

 

[tharmonson]

Before our new owners took over last July, we all had ideas and expectations of what would happen. Nobody, however, had any clue that these owners believed that you can't cut your way to prosperity and that quality is vital if we want people to pay for our product.

Since then, we've grown at an astonishing rate, adding journalists and sections with regularity. Our editor got the idea of putting up photos of new hires on the wall across from the bathrooms in the newsroom. There are several rows of photos that now stretch all the way across the wall. Of course, we in sports don't see them that often because we moved off that floor; we and the rest of the newsroom had grown too much to fit on one floor.

Someone asked about the sports hires. I think I posted a list on the jobs board when one of our positions was filled, but here's the latest:

Jeff Fletcher and Pedro Moura - Baseball writers
Ryan Kartje - UCLA beat writer
Rich Hammond - USC beat writer
Jake Kaplan and Antonio Morales - Reporter trainees (also five photo trainees who shoot high school sports but technically are part of the photo staff)
Kevin Nikolas, Lombardo Rodriguez and Gary Schnurr - Designers
Chris Bayee, Bill Cizek, Chuck Hickey, Jim McCurdie - Copy editors
Todd Bailey - OCVarsity coordinator
Chuck Scott - Assistant sports editor (baseball/day editor)

Also, we were able to promote Nick Leyva (desk) and Brian Patterson (high schools) to assistant sports editor roles to replace assistants who retired or left the department. Note: There also have been several sports hires in our community editions, but they don't report to our staff.

We're thrilled with those we added to an excellent group that weathered some hard times but is thriving with our push to keep improving the Register.

And since someone will ask, we don't officially have any openings for sports writers, but I anticipate getting the approval to look for a golf writer soon. If that happens and the potential candidates we have identified don't pan out, I will put up a post for the position on the jobs board. We do have a desk opening, and I'll get that posted soon.

Todd Harmonson
Sports Editor
Orange County Register

 

[Giggity]

I've been fortunate enough to talk to Todd and some of the other hiring managers recently.

I'm in my mid-30s. I've heard enough talk from the old-timers to recognize that what's going on at the Register is what the old-timers described as happening in the boom years of the 80s and 90s.

They have good jobs to offer. They want to do real journalism. They will pay you a fair wage. You'll work for, and with, people you like, respect and will learn from. You might be part of the newsroom that convinces other newsrooms that it pays to invest in real journalism.

Or, you might just go have a great job for a couple years in SoCal.

 

[NDJournalist]

Once again, everything sounds good with the OC Register. Keep it up!

 

[wicked]

Actual papers... the e-edition I read seems to have a lot of ads. Of course, I don't know what they're charging for the ads, but the weekday editions seem to be thicker than most other cities.

My only hesitancy is that we've heard the good-ship lollipop stories before (hi, Fanhouse!) ... the rank-and-file are the last to know the Titanic's iceberg is nearby.

Please, I hope these folk prove me wrong.

 

[Captain Obvious]

Not having a digital-only option will kill the paper in the coming years.

That 3 percent increase in subscriptions figure is a bit fuzzy, as the Ken Doctor article mentioned the Register had "a crazy-quilt of pricing."

 

[mediaguy]

Todd, thanks for answering. Much appreciated and happy to hear about a newspaper investing in its product.