Los Angeles Times Expands "Local Community Values" Preprint, Product Sampling Program

LOS ANGELES, March 22, 2004 – With the expansion of the Los Angeles Times’ “Local Community Values” preprint advertising and product sample distribution program, advertisers can now target approximately 4.6 million Times subscriber and non-subscriber households in Southern California every week.Local Community Values is an integrated customized approach – incorporating Times newspaper inserts, U.S. mail and alternative delivery – that allows advertisers to reach Southern California households in up to 12 zoned editions targeting clusters of ZIP Codes or at the single ZIP Code or sub-ZIP Code level.

The expansion, effective March 31, adds approximately 1 million households to the program, providing advertisers with an overall ZIP Code penetration rate of 95% and helping expand their penetration into fast-growing Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The current non-subscriber Tuesday-Wednesday Local Community Values package will be distributed on Thursday-Friday, allowing advertisers to align their marketing messages with the end-of-week purchasing habits of approximately 4.6 million Southern California households.

The change does not affect the current California Weekend Direct preprint program, which is offered in conjunction with seven Los Angeles Newspaper Group newspapers and CIPS Marketing Group.

“Market-wide coverage is key for our advertisers and the expansion of our Local Community Values program provides that total market solution,” said Ray McCutcheon, Los Angeles Times senior vice president for advertising. “Our objective is to help develop a robust, cost-effective Friday preprint marketplace for any advertiser – from automotive, grocery and electronics to home improvement, restaurants and sporting goods – looking to target consumers late in the week.”

“The continuing expansion of our preprint business is a direct reflection of our ability to meet advertiser needs in the highly competitive Southern California market and of the investments we’ve made in creating one of the most sophisticated and technologically advanced newspaper inserting and production facilities in North America,” said McCutcheon.

Local Community Values is produced by California Community News (CCN), a sister company of the Los Angeles Times. In 2002, CCN opened a new $50 million 325,000-square-foot printing, production, packaging and distribution center in Irwindale, Calif. The state-of-the-art facility offers full graphic and design capabilities including web and sheet-fed printing, offset or heat-set, bindery and finishing, and complete pre-press services. A fully automated warehouse management system can store and trace up to 6,000 skids weekly.

The Irwindale facility can produce and distribute more than 7.5 million preprint packages weekly – more than 400 million packages to Los Angeles DMA consumers annually. Last year, CCN distributed more than 3 billion preprinted advertising circulars through the Local Community Values program and through the daily and Sunday editions of The Times.

The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing company, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country and the winner of 30 Pulitzer Prizes. The Times publishes five daily regional editions covering the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Orange and Ventura counties, the San Fernando Valley, and an Inland Empire edition covering Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as a National edition. Additional information about The Times is available at www.latimes.com/mediacenter.