D.R. Segal, 82; Newspaper Executive

D.R. “Bob” Segal, former president and chief executive of Freedom Communications Inc., which publishes the Orange County Register, died Tuesday at his home in Corona del Mar.

Segal, who was 82 and had Alzheimer’s disease, died of natural causes, according to the Orange County coroner’s office.

Donald Robert Segal led Freedom from 1979 to 1992, the first person to take the helm who was not a member of the founding Hoiles family, which still controls the privately held company.

Segal was credited with, among other things, adding broadcast stations and newspapers to the media company, adopting an employee pension plan and helping keep the family company intact as the descendants of founder R.C. Hoiles argued in court in the 1980s over whether to sell the business.

The family is embroiled in a similar dispute now, as some third-generation Hoiles descendants, led by Freedom Director Tim Hoiles, seek to liquidate their stakes in the company, which began with the elder Hoiles’ purchase of the Register in 1935.

Segal ran the company at a time when Freedom sought to navigate the Register from the journalism backwater into prominence. With Register Publisher R. David Threshie, Segal pumped money into the paper’s historically low-budget editorial product, limited its strident libertarian views to the editorial and opinion pages, invested in new printing presses and positioned Freedom for higher profits in the ‘80s.

The paper also achieved journalistic peaks, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 and 1989. The paper won a third in 1996, after Segal had retired.

Segal was key, too, in leading Freedom’s expansion into broadcasting, and was in charge when Freedom bought five of its current eight television stations.

Segal began his Freedom career in the newsroom. He joined the Register as a reporter in 1945, a time when the founding Hoiles was a strong presence and often led staffers in deep philosophical discussions rooted in Libertarianism, which calls for strict limitations on the duties of government and opposes tax support for education.

Segal rose through the company ranks and became editor of the Appeal-Democrat in Marysville, Calif., then executive editor of the Texas Rio Grande Valley Newspaper Group before taking over as publisher of the Gaston Gazette in Gastonia, N.C.

“Bob’s story is in many ways the story of this company, since he is a link back in time to our founder, R.C. Hoiles, and forward through his son, Jon, now president of our community newspaper division,” Alan Bell, president and chief executive officer of Freedom Communications, said in a prepared statement.

“As one of my predecessors, he was an important figure in our history and we’ll all miss him.”

In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, Kathryn; daughter Janet Crane; and four grandchildren.

Funeral services are being planned for Monday afternoon at St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church in Corona del Mar. Interment will follow at Pacific View Memorial Park.