March 11--Aaron Kushner and Eric Spitz, the co-owners of the Orange County Register's parent company, Freedom Communications, resigned Tuesday from executive duties at the paper and the firm, the Register reported.
The move comes less than three years after an investment group led by Kushner bought Freedom in 2012 and announced a bold plan to aggressively expand its news products. Those efforts failed.
Kushner beefed up the O.C. Register with about 175 new reporters and editors, launched the Long Beach Register, bought the Riverside Press-Enterprise in 2013 and launched the Los Angeles Register last year.
Freedom closed its Long Beach and short-lived Los Angeles newspapers and imposed steep staff reductions at the Orange County Register and the Press-Enterprise and furloughs companywide. In September, it sold the Orange County Register headquarters in Santa Ana for $27 million to local developer Michael Harrah. The Register is leasing back the building.
Staff at the Register learned about the resignations during a short town hall meeting late Tuesday afternoon.
"It has been a privilege and honor to serve as a leader of this institution," Kushner told the newsroom, according to an account in The Register. "Thank you for hard work, your patience and commitment to the Register."
One staffer told the Times that Spitz told the crowd, "Think about what you should be thanking Kushner for." That was met with silence.
Another newsroom staffer said, "The general reaction was relief."
No questions were allowed during the meeting.
Freedom Communications continues to face financial troubles.
In October, the Los Angeles Times sued the Orange County Register, saying it had failed to pay $2.5 million it owed The Times for delivering its papers. The Orange County Register hired a new delivery service, but subscribers said they went days without receiving their papers. In November, the Orange County Register offered to pay reporters and other employees to start delivering papers themselves.
Now, with Kushner and Spitz stepping down, publisher Rich Mirman has assumed their executive duties, the Register reported.
UPDATE:
5:18 p.m.: This post was updated with details from the town hall meeting and comments from staffers.
