Russ Newton named publisher at Times Community News
Readers may soon see papers in coin-operated newspaper boxes again, said Times Community News Publisher Russ Newton, a move he said will increase the availability of the Glendale News-Press and Burbank Leader to interested readers as well as highlight its worth.
“We are going to charge something for the newspaper,” said Newton, who added that it’s not about raising money, but because “there’s value to the product.”
Earlier this month, Austin Beutner, publisher and chief executive of the Los Angeles Times, named Newton publisher of Times Community News, a portfolio of local papers that includes the News-Press, the Burbank Leader and the La Cañada Valley Sun. He will also oversee three community titles based in Orange County: The Daily Pilot, Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent.
The papers’ last publisher was Gordon Tomaske, who left that position roughly six years ago.
Newton began his career in Wisconsin in the 1970s and worked his way from being a pressman, with jobs in Virginia and Chicago, into management positions at Tribune-owned papers in Newport News, Va. and Orlando, Fla.
He came to Los Angeles in 2000 as president and director of operations at the California Community News, and in 2007 became senior vice president of operations and home delivery for the Los Angeles Times.
As publisher, Newton will have overall responsibility for both the editorial quality and profitability of the community papers. The Glendale resident said though he may have suggestions, he won’t be involved in day-to-day coverage issues.
Times Community News, North editor Dan Evans said it’s “a relief” to have someone dedicated to the business side of the operation. In recent years, he said, many decisions tended to take a “one-size-fits-all” approach, instead of looking at what was best for the community papers as opposed to The Times.
Newton said recent changes within the division — closing editions, removing publication days and moving the editorial staff from the city it covered — made sense individually, but were not the smartest decisions as a whole.
He said he hopes to reverse that trend.
“We want to make this paper more relevant and stronger, so it can serve the public for the next 100 years,” he said. “We have a journalistic mission, but you can’t do that if you’re not profitable.”
Sitting in his office on the eighth floor of The Times building Friday, Newton said he reads four daily newspapers and values the information they contain. Whenever he talks to people who don’t read the paper, he gives them a spiel to change their mind, telling them about how newspapers keep him well-informed.
In a modified version of that, as he flipped through the pages of one Friday edition, Newton described the “serendipity” of finding interesting and informative stories he wouldn’t have sought out.
“South Korea tosses adultery law,” he said, reading a headline. “Now, are you going to look for that online?”
Selling print newspapers out of a coin-operated box may be more symbolic, but Newton said he’s also looking at other changes such as increasing publication days, increasing its reach, and possibly bulking up the print product and the newspaper’s staff.
He said he’s also “going to look very hard at reestablishing a physical presence in Glendale” to be closer to the community. Times Community News moved its offices from Glendale to The Times building in downtown Los Angeles in December 2012.
For his part, Evans said he’s hopeful for the future. Naming a dedicated publisher, he said, “shows the Los Angeles Times and the Tribune Publishing company truly value local news and want it to thrive.”