OC Register to print San Gabriel Valley newspapers

The San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group - San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News - today announced plans to outsource the printing of its papers to the Orange County Register.

Rod Leveque reports at the group's Economic Alert blog:

The papers had been published at a facility in Valencia owned by the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, which includes the Tribune, Star-News and Whittier Daily News. The move is part of a larger effort by the group to restructure its printing and production operations.

According to CEO of LANG, Ed Moss, "Outsourcing our printing will enable us to reallocate vital resources to our editorial and advertising sales efforts and refocus on our core mission of being the premium local content provider in the communities we serve."

I'm told LANG plans to sell the Valencia plant, which also prints the Daily News, within the next few months. The announcement here would seem to add credence to this.

Taking it to the street

The Chicago Tribune is the latest newspaper to switch to a tabloid-format street edition in hopes of boosting newsstand sales. The tabloid Tribune will cost 75 cents a copy - which, coincidentally, is what the Los Angeles Times now charges for a paper off the rack.

The Tribune will continue delivery the traditional broadsheet to home subscribers. Given the negative connotations of 'tabloid journalism' in America, the move seems to designed to lower the risk that long-term subscribers will drop the paper.

There were reports in September that the OC Register was considering going tabloid - the publisher said he preferred to call it a "compact" newspaper. Not sure whatever happened to that.