Language barrier: after publishing for nearly 100 years, the leading newspaper catering to the Japanese-American market is battling declining readership and revenues. (Small Business).

THE business day was over for most downtown workers one recent Friday -- but not for Michael Komai, publisher of the Rafu Shimpo, the city's last remaining bilingual Japanese newspaper.

With a couple dozen homeless people setting up cardboard shelters on the other side of the newspaper's South Los Angeles Street office, Komai stood behind locked doors planning a major facelift of the 98-year-old newspaper.

Founded by three University of Southern California students as a weekly, the paper is considered the city's most prominent voice for Los Angeles County's 111,350 Japanese-Americans. Maintaining that role has become more difficult for Komai as he struggles, along with other media outlets, with declining ad revenues.

What makes the struggle harder is that Rafu Shimpo is trying to solve the riddle of attrition -- getting new subscribers to replace the aging immigrants who speak and read predominantly, if not solely, in Japanese.

Los Angeles News Publishing Co. Inc., publisher of the newspaper whose name translates as "Los Angeles Newspaper," is looking to bring back circulation to its 1988 peak of 23,000 from the current 16,000. Circulation is 11,000 in L.A. County, another 1,500 in Orange County and remainder scattered throughout California, the United States and Japan.

As part of the circulation effort, the paper signed a deal last May with Tokyo's Mainichi Shimbun, the third largest newspaper in Japan. Each day, the local paper reprints four pages of the Japanese paper's articles emailed to its downtown office.

Stemming the decline

Despite that deal and an increased emphasis on local coverage, retaining readership remains a struggle.

"The first generation (around) World War II are dying off" said Komai, publisher since 1983. "We don't necessarily get replenished by their children picking up the circulation. Mainstream newspapers don't cover the issues that are specific to our community. Or many times we'll cover issues in greater depth because we have the same ethnic background. But (younger people) don't feel the need to see the paper everyday or at all. They may not find the English articles interesting."

The newspaper also covers local news and sports, as well as community events and services.

"We really heavily depend on the Rafu Shimpo to help us get information out to the community," said Bill Watanabe, executive director of the Little Tokyo Service Center, which offers 20 health and social service programs to local Japanese Americans. "If it ever disappeared, our access to tens of thousands of people would be cut off."

Rafu Shimpo prints 14 to 16 pages, with nine to 11 pages in Japanese and four or five in English. The English language section is geared toward the children of first- and second-generation immigrants who make up the bulk of the subscribers.

Home delivery comprises 99 percent of its circulation base, with 70 percent of readership speaking little or no English.

While readership has been shrinking for some time, the broader downturn in the advertising market has compounded the company's struggles.

Already facing a sluggish market, the newspaper lost a $10,000 fourth quarter advertising contract from American Airlines after Sept. 11 and has seen ads disappear from smaller travel industry-related accounts.

With this year's revenues expected to fall $300,000 short of the company's projected $3.5 million overhead, Los Angeles News Publishing just announced the elimination of 10 jobs from its staff of 47.

In another cost-saving move, the newspaper created a stir in early November when it announced it would cease publication of its Monday edition. It marked the first time no issue has appeared on a Monday since shortly after its founding. (It was published Monday through Saturday in the early days, with periodic Sunday editions during the 1930s. It has been bilingual since 1925.)

Community response

The job cuts, deemed necessary by company officials, are not sitting well.

"This a family-owned newspaper that has a long history within the Japanese American community," said Alan Nishio, a member of Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, a local human rights organization. "In a community environment like this, you want to treat your employees as more than just employees. The process could have been handled much more sensitively."

Komai said the cuts are an effort to ensure the publication's survival, noting that he is doing "everything in my power to keep the newspaper going."

The newspaper has peripheral competition. Most notably on the Japanese-language front are the Bridge and Lighthouse, two biweekly news magazines, the U.S.-Japan Business News, a weekly newspaper, and the Nikkei Sun, another small daily newspaper.

One aspect of its competition that will remain absent from Rafu Shimpo are political endorsements. "We're too small," said Komai. "We can't afford to make enemies."

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Los Angeles News Publishing Co. Inc.

Year Founded: 1903

Core Business: Newspaper publishing

Revenues in 1996: $3.5 million

Revenues in 2001: $3.2 million

Employees in 1996: 55

Employees in 2001: 37

Goals: To increase circulation from 16,000 to at least 25,000 within three years.

Driving Force: Extensive coverage of Japanese American issues that affect the county's 111,350 Japanese American residents.