Recession, new tax put crimp in Ventura County's competitive newspaper market.

After the Los Angeles Times decided last year that Ventura County warranted its own daily edition of the major metropolitan newspaper, creating increased competition for the local media, the area was belatedly hit by the recession. Then the state socked newspapers last July with a new sales tax, making things even tougher.

"Generally, we have a situation here where the bigger papers move in, and the smaller papers keep trying to provide good, local coverage," said Terry Greenberg, editor of the News-Chronicle in Thousand Oaks, a 23,000-circulation daily owned by J.P. Scripps Newspapers, a subsidiary of Scripps Howard. "That's what we're trying to do -- be a good community newspaper. I think there's a future for us."

Greenberg is new to the Ventura County publishing game. He came to the News-Chronicle nine months ago from the Pasadena Star News, where he was the managing editor.

Greenberg said his biggest competition is coming from a daily Thousand Oaks/Simi Valley front "wrapper" section to the Daily News of the San Fernando Valley. Then there are the Times readers who move to the Thousand Oaks area from Los Angeles; it takes time to convert them, said Greenberg.

"People move here from L.A. County. A lot of them just bring the Times with them, and they say, 'Oh! They've got a Ventura County edition!'" said Greenberg.

The News-Chronicle has had some layoffs in the past year, due to falling advertising revenues. Real estate advertising has been particularly hard hit, said Greenberg.

But most newspaper publishers in Ventura County have largely managed to avoid layoffs, and some say there are signs things are beginning to improve.

The Business Journal was unable to obtain information from the county's major paper, the Ventura Star-Free Press, also a J.P. Scripps publication. Some in the publishing industry say the Star-Free Press has been hit particularly hard by competition from the Times and its executives are being secretive.

Jeff Kline, president of the Times' Ventura County edition, said the Times' circulation in Ventura County has increased about 13 percent in the past 18 months to about 47,500 daily and 66,000 on Sunday, making it the top-circulation paper in the county on Sundays.

Kline said the Times Ventura County edition is running "neck-and-neck" with the Star-Free Press, which has a daily circulation of about 49,000. "Their circulation has been relatively flat," said Kline.

In an effort to compete with the Times' higher circulation, the Star-Free Press has begun offering a combined media buy with the News-Chronicle and the Simi Valley Enterprise, Kline noted.

"Our ad revenue is up, but it's a long, slow process," said Kline. "We've been beating our projections of what we expected."

Over at the Press Courier, the daily afternoon paper in Oxnard serving the western part of the county, Publisher Jerry Scott said things are beginning to look up after a tough year.

"There's a recession on, and I don't think anyone is immune," said Scott. His paper was hit by a decline in help wanted advertising.

"In classified, help wanted has always been a big player, and classified has been suffering," Scott said. "Just over the last several weeks, in display recruitment ads, there has been a resurgence. I think that is a very positive sign."

The Press-Courier's paid circulation of 20,000 has been flat in recent months, Scott said, probably because of subscription price increases brought on by the new statewide newspaper tax.

Jon Fishman, publisher of the twice weekly Ojai Valley News since January, claims to have "really turned the paper around" in the past nine months, upping year-to-date revenues 12 percent over the first nine months of 1990.

Fishman said he's accomplished this growth in the midst of the recession by reversing a direction change made by his predecessor, Duke Tully, who came to the Ojai Valley News in the late 1980s, after a controversial reign as publisher of the major daily newspaper in Phoenix -- the Arizona Republic. Tully resigned in disgrace from the Republic after it was revealed that he had fabricated a personal history as a decorated military hero, creating a nationally reported scandal.

"We'd lost the supermarkets' (advertising) to the Star-Free Press under Duke Tully. We've got the supermarkets back," said Fishman, explaining that Tully had alienated these advertisers by changing the editorial focus of the paper. "We've returned to being a local newspaper. I threw out all the national news and syndicates (Tully used). We're not trying to be what we're not.

"We are adding to the staff editorially, and the same thing with advertising. We've gone back to basics with a lot of local hard-news stories."

The Ojai Valley News' chief competition is the Star-Free Press' weekly Ojai Valley edition, Fishman said.

The Moorpark News, a 5,000-circulation weekly in the eastern part of the county, was "doing fairly well until June," said Publisher Debbie Ryono.

"The summer was bad. Things are better, but we're still way down from a year ago," she said.

In an unusual move, the Moorpark News has decided to start publishing a one-page fax newspaper once or twice per week "for people who can't wait." The new publication was launched this month, but with only two subscribers!