Era Ending at Anaheim Bulletin : 93-Year-Old Daily to Go Weekly in Merger With Register Section

Orange County’s oldest continuously published daily newspaper, the 93-year-old Anaheim Bulletin, becomes a weekly publication after Friday.

The paper has had moments of greatness: It made enemies in the 1920s by editorializing against Ku Klux Klan members holding posts in city government and the chamber of commerce.

It has had moments of fervor: A former managing editor was known to lecture female reporters against short skirts and, at other times, drop to his knees in prayer in a nearby coffee shop.

And it had a watchdog’s vigilance during Anaheim’s formative years.

“It would be an overstatement to say it always influenced City Council actions, but it played a strong role,” said Anaheim City Councilman Tom Daly.

The Bulletin, which last reported circulation of 6,500, will merge with the Orange County Register’s weekly community section to form a weekly newspaper to be published Thursdays. Both papers are owned by Irvine-based Freedom Newspapers Inc.

Friday also marks the last day of 76 years of daily publication for the 4,000-circulation La Habra Daily Star-Progress, which Freedom Newspapers plans to break into two weeklies, the La Habra Star and the Brea Progress. The Star and Progress merged in 1963.

Small daily newspapers have lost out in the circulation battle being waged in Orange County by the Register and The Times Orange County Edition.

Freedom Newspapers bought the struggling papers in Anaheim and La Habra, as well as the Orange News, in 1964. The Orange News, which was founded in 1888, became a weekly in April, 1967, and folded 15 months later.

The Fullerton Daily News Tribune went from daily to weekly publication in January, 1985. At the time, it was Orange County’s oldest reigning daily, having published for the first time in 1891.