L.A. Times to hike focus on San Fernando Valley; it scraps its San Diego edition, plans to accent valley.

The battle between the Daily News and the Los Angeles Times for newspaper readers and advertisers in the San Fernando Valley has been intense, but now it could turn into war.

The Times wants to redeploy most of the 108 staffers from its San Diego County edition to the valley to "focus on investments closer to home," according to David Laventhol, publisher and chief executive officer of the Times. Citing its limited daily readership and advertising base in San Diego, the Times announced Nov. 6 it will close its edition there Dec. 18 and save $8 million annually, Laventhol said.

The nagging recession's impact on the Times' shrinking advertising revenues is forcing the giant to slash costs in all areas.

In addition to the San Diego retreat, the Times is offering its 5,200 full-time employees a special voluntary separation program, providing those eligible with up to two years of separation pay. The move is part of a plan to chop payroll by about 500 in 1993.

Despite cutbacks, Laventhol signaled a heightened accent on the San Fernando Valley market.

The News and Times have been slugging it out for a decade. In the last year, each side has claimed circulation and advertising gains.

The News issued a statement: "The refocusing of some of the Los Angeles Times resources to the San Fernando Valley is a true measure and acknowledgment of our strengths and gains against the Times in the last five years."

David Auger, publisher for The Daily News, wouldn't talk about specific strategies to meet the Times redeployment into the valley edition. "We can't disclose anything further than our statement. This is a highly competitive situation," he said.

The Daily News is far from bashful about trumpeting its gains. On Nov. 4, it ran a front-page story headlined "Daily News leads in circulation growth." The article pointed out that audited circulation figures for the six month period ended Sept. 30 showed the News grew 1.7 percent to 207,421 daily circulation while the Times dropped 30,622 copies and now has 1,146,631 readers.

Jeffrey Klein, president of the Times valley and Ventura editions, looks at all the numbers and crunches them differently.

Klein said, "If you look at the ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) statement, their growth is on the periphery in areas like the Antelope Valley. The ironic thing here is the Daily News published a section called LA Life and they claim to be the newspaper for the valley. We are the only local paper in the valley that has a weekend guide that focuses on what goes on around your home."

While the Daily News has been entering the Times' turf with 24,000 readers outside the valley in places like downtown L.A., Santa Monica and Pasadena, the Times has doggedly tailored its local edition to the valley market.

Earlier this year, the Times introduced a community briefs page and established a weekly valley business section that has doubled ad lineage in the Tuesday valley business pages, Klein said. In the section the Times is selling one inch ads to smaller entrepreneurs.

"This is a new kind of advertising for us historically, but in these tough times we go after every kind of advertising," Klein said.

The Times' circulation has been growing in the valley and for its valley/Ventura editions circulation was 232,996 for the latest six months, a 1.7 percent increase. On Sunday the Times has 329,254 readers in the area, an increase of 3.4 percent. Over the last three years, the Times' growth in the valley has been averaging 4 percent to 5 percent annually, Klein said.

Auger wouldn't concede anything, saying that the Times growth has come on the periphery of the valley and in Ventura, not in the core market.

"On the advertising side we have seen an overall 8 percent market share shift to us and we have been running away with the real estate market advertising since 1988," Auger said.

Klein wasn't sure how many new employees would be coming to the valley from the San Diego shakeout but the valley editorial staff currently has about 85. There are 600 overall fulltime staffers in the valley and 1,300 including part timers. Of San Diego's 108 employees, 50 were in editorial.

"We are going to take the steps to strengthen our valley franchise and that means investments in people, editorial, production and marketing. I would expect the Daily News would respond to that," Klein said.