HUNTINGTON BEACH : Weekly Newspaper to Make Comeback

The Huntington Beach News, a downtown weekly newspaper that suspended publication last month for the first time in its 85-year history, is expected to return to full circulation May 25 with a new look, Publisher Jack Kelly said.

Buoyed by new financial backing, the News will reappear as a full-sized broadsheet newspaper, abandoning the tabloid format it had adopted in recent years, Kelly said. He declined to disclose who is financing the paper’s revival, saying he is still working out details of the agreement.

Because of mounting debts and aging newsroom equipment, the News was on the edge of folding after failing to publish its scheduled April 6 issue. Recent editions each Friday have consisted of irregularly distributed two- or four-page sheets devoid of any staff-generated copy. Kelly said he produced the sheets only because of advertising obligations.

Kelly said he hopes the changes will enable him to expand the News staff and circulation and improve editorial quality.

“We’re working on various phases of a new business program, to see what we can do to achieve the goals that we’ve set,” said Kelly, who bought the paper in September after serving on the Huntington Beach City Council between 1980 and 1988.

The weekly newspaper was founded in 1905, four years before the city was incorporated, by prominent businessman Ed Hoag. The News was purchased three years later by Minnie and Louis Paul Hart, who during the next decade transformed the publication into a vehicle for Progressive Party politics.

After a brief ownership by James Conrad, James Farqahar bought the paper in 1922, beginning a six-decade long ownership by the Farqahar family. Under Farqahar and his son, George, the News blossomed amid the city’s oil boom, expanding into several sections by the 1940s.

Its size and influence waned during the 1960s, however, mainly because of the ascent of larger, regional daily newspapers, local historian Barbara Milkovich said.

“It was a dandy paper until the last 10 or 15 years,” Milkovich said.