Other dailies lag as big papers get bigger; smaller papers lose ground to foreign-language ones.

Other dailies lag as big papers get bigger

The Los Angeles Times, the nationwide newspaper based in Los Angeles, and the Daily News of the San Fernando Valley, the second largest paper in the county, are continuing to gain readers, while circulation is falling at the smaller English-language suburban dailies, based on information in the Business Journal's List of the 15 largest daily newspapers in Los Angeles County (see page 24).

The suburban dailies say if they are losing readers, it's not to the Times, which has been picking up circulation in outlying counties, but to the foreign-language press. As the ethnic mix in the Southland shifts and minority groups become the majority, more people are turning to foreign-language papers, say publishing executives.

As a result, more English-language papers are studying the possibility of foreign-language sections to combat the problem.

Figures provided by Times spokeswoman Laura Morgan show that the Times' circulation in Los Angeles County rose about 2 percent last year. Morgan said much of that growth was in the San Fernando Valley, where the Daily News also gained new readers. In Orange County, the Times Sunday circulation was up about 17 percent, which has been attributed largely to its new television program listings.

Although there was little change in summer 1991 from a year earlier in the rankings of papers on The List, circulation figures would seem to indicate foreign-language papers are gaining ground at the expense of English-language community dailies outside the Valley.

Circulation is up about 7 percent in the past year at La Opinion, the major Spanish-language paper and the fourth largest daily in the county. A 50 percent interest in Lozano Enterprises, which publishes La Opinion, was purchased this year by Los Angeles-based Times Mirror Co., which publishes the Times.

Noticias del Mundo reported a 14 percent increase in circulation, to 40,000 today from 35,000 in the summer of 1990.

Circulation also is up at the county's largest Asian daily, the Korea Central Daily, by about 3 percent, and at the International Daily News-Chinese, by more than 10 percent.

"Our figures don't show that where we've lost circulation we've lost it to the Times," said Peter Ridder, publisher of the Press-Telegram in Long Beach. "The Anglos are moving out of Los Angeles County. Long Beach is about 50 percent ethnic. . . . A lot of English-speaking newspapers are looking at a Spanish edition. We're doing some research (into the possibility)."

The List shows a decrease in Press-Telegram circulation compared to 1990, but Ridder said the figures published by the Business Journal in 1990 were incorrect and circulation has remained about the same.

Over at the local Copley Press newspapers, circulation has fallen, and Mike Lynn, marketing director at the Daily Breeze in Torrance, agreed with Ridder about the probable cause - the shift in the ethnic balance.

"That's why everyone is looking at foreign-language sections," said Lynn. "The Times' penetration here is the same as it always was."

Tom Wafer, general manager of the Copley papers (including the Outlook in Santa Monica), said the Asian population in particular has grown significantly in the South Bay market.

"We have more and more immigrants coming into the Southland," said Wafer.

However, he added that some declines in circulation at both papers may be due to their shrinking promotion budget, a victim of the recession and declining advertising revenues.

William Markham, president of Antelope Valley Newspapers Inc., which publishes the Antelope Valley Press in Palmdale, said his paper loses a few readers to the ethnic shift every year, but not enough to justify publication of a foreign-language section.

Circulation at the Antelope Valley Press was down about 6 percent in the past year.

"I don't think we need to address it (the ethnic shift) right now, maybe five or 10 years from now," Markham said. He noted that advertising revenues are up at the paper, and he plans to improve circulation by improving the editorial content.

PHOTO : Times Mirror Square: Downtown Los Angeles