O.C. Register Editor Promoted to Associate Publisher

The editor of the Orange County Register, N. Christian Anderson, has been elevated to associate publisher of the newspaper, ending a dozen years as the senior editor, a period in which the newspaper has earned a national reputation for innovation.

Anderson and John Schueler, vice president of circulation, will divide the duties of the former general manager, the Register said. Anderson’s new titles are executive vice president and associate publisher; Schueler is executive vice president and general manager.

The general manager position was vacated earlier this week by Richard A. Wallace, who was promoted to the newly created position of vice president-corporate affairs for the Register’s parent company, Freedom Newspapers Inc.

Successors to Anderson and Schueler have not been announced, according to R. David Threshie, publisher of the Register, who issued a prepared statement on the changes but was not available for comment.

The promotions are the latest in a string of changes Freedom Newspapers has made since mid-April, when former Stanford University provost James Rosse took over as president and chief executive.

Anderson came from the Seattle Times in 1980 after working on two smaller papers in the Pacific Northwest. The Oregon State University alumnus arrived when the Register was visually dull, had a narrow focus on north central Orange County cities and contained little national, international or statewide news. Its Libertarian opinions worked their way into news stories, as in the case of public schools being referred to as “tax-supported” schools.

Today, the newspaper is California’s third largest daily and has two Pulitzer Prizes to its credit, one for a 1988 expose about the military’s night vision goggles, the other for photography of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Anderson said the new job does not represent a change in direction in terms of the news product. “We’re very successful, and we need to keep building on that,” he said.

The Register reports a daily circulation of more than 330,000 on weekdays and Saturdays and about 400,000 on Sundays. In April, it said its growth was slowing. Blaming the recession and intense competition, the Register reported that its average circulation in Orange County fell 5.7% on weekdays and Saturdays and 3.1% on Sundays during the six-month period that ended March 31.

Anderson will be in charge of strategic and operational planning for the Register as well as Golden West Publishing, which owns 19 weekly Orange County newspapers, said Mike Lednovich, a company spokesman. Anderson will supervise the news, information services and facilities departments as well as human resources, finance, commentary and community relations.

Schueler will be in charge of advertising, circulation, mail room, transportation and production.

Schueler was hired as vice president of circulation in September of last year. He was formerly president of New England Newspapers, which publishes three newspapers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with a combined circulation of about 100,000.

Schueler, who studied marketing at Western Michigan University, is a former vice president of circulation at the Miami Herald, and he served as the director of sales and marketing in circulation at the Atlanta Constitution.