Los Angeles Times Launches New Inland Empire Edition

May 5, 2003 12 AM PT

LOS ANGELES, May 5, 2003 – The Los Angeles Times is introducing a new Inland Empire edition today that features expanded coverage of local and regional news and issues in the fastest-growing part of Southern California.

What’s new:

•	The Inland Empire edition will be distributed in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
•	The California section will be customized for Inland Empire readers. In addition to its existing coverage of the state and the region as a whole, the section will highlight news and trends of particular interest to readers in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
•	An expanded staff of reporters, based in Riverside, will focus on in-depth coverage of government and politics, public safety and the courts, K-12 and higher education, the environment and transportation, and the area’s growth and development. The staff will cover news of strong local interest as well as stories with appeal for readers across Southern California.
•	Weekend Calendar, published every Thursday, will have new listings for all Inland Empire theatres.
•	The Inland Empire edition will be published Monday through Friday.

“The Inland Empire is the fastest-growing area in Southern California, and parts of it have very strong affinities to Los Angeles,” said John Puerner, publisher, Los Angeles Times. “We believe the Inland Empire represents an important source of future, consistent circulation growth over the long-term.”

“When The Times introduced the California section in 2001, the aim was to offer readers what no other newspaper can provide – Southern California’s only truly region-wide news report. The new Inland Empire edition will cover the local area news with great depth and seriousness and, at the same time, give a broader context to it by covering Southern California and state news in the same fashion,” said John Carroll, editor, Los Angeles Times.

The Inland Empire edition is the fifth regional edition published by the Los Angeles Times in Southern California. The four other regional editions cover the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the San Fernando Valley, Orange County and Ventura County.

In each region, the California section is designed to display stories of particular interest to local readers. The section also highlights news produced by the largest statewide staff of any California newspaper – with reporters in Sacramento, San Diego, Fresno, Santa Barbara and San Francisco.

The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing company, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country and winner of 30 Pulitzer Prizes, including three this year in national reporting, feature writing and feature photography.