Take head, apply to wall. Repeat.

To shore up falling ad revenues, the Orange County Register has developed a three-pronged strategy that basically mimics the one already in use by MediaNews newspapers in California: smaller staff, more community focus, more focus on Web reports, younger staff, etc.

How's that working for MediaNews? The Daily News of Los Angeles, the "flagship" of the Southern California papers is about to be butchered, every reporter and editor working for the MediaNews papers in the Bay Area has been, er, encouraged to take a buy out or face the knife, the San Jose Mercury News has suffered copious cuts, and the remaining California papers are bracing themselves for Bad News, since they aren't turning sufficient profits either.

I'd guess the Register is positioning itself for a possible sale to MediaNews. Otherwise the moves make no sense.

Meantime, the Los Angeles Times appears to be implementing a "change vs. experience" strategy, whereby anyone with experience (meaning older) is asked to take a last-chance buy out to make way for younger, more pliable journalists who will embrace the change of lower pay, fewer benefits and "Web" standards.