Rieder: This publisher is spending to grow

• Orange County paper is placing a heavy emphasis on print
• Publisher says few businesses %27matter more than news%27
• Early signs indicate his growth strategy is paying off

What does Aaron Kushner know that no one else does?

Everybody knows that in the news business, the future is digital. Newspapers everywhere are cutting back on their print operations, reducing staffs and news space. Even the mighty New York Times isn't immune: In recent weeks, a buyout program pushed more than 20 Times journalists out the door, many of them top editors.

But at the Orange County Register in Southern California, Kushner is going on a hiring spree, adding scores of journalists to the Register roster. And he's placing a heavy emphasis on print.

Kushner is the paper's publisher. He's also the CEO of Freedom Communications, which owns the Register and five other dailies. Last July, Kushner, who previously tried unsuccessfully to buy The Boston Globe, headed a private-equity group called 2100 Trust, which acquired the Freedom papers.

Kushner's background is in business, not journalism. Given the wide array of problems facing the newspaper industry, why plunge in now?

"There are very few businesses we believe matter more than news," Kushner said in a telephone interview. While the field is "extremely difficult and challenging," Kushner believes the mission outweighs the difficulties. He stresses his involvement is a "long-term commitment."

In recent years, as advertising revenue has plummeted, newspapers across the country have slashed staffs, closed bureaus and reduced the amount of news they offer. Despite the "doing more with less" nonsense that news executives too often spew, the result is a weaker product trying to survive in a crowded, highly competitive news environment.

"It was very difficult to envision a scenario where you could cut your way to prosperity," Kushner says. The real question, he adds, is, "How do we grow our way to prosperity?" The answer: Give Orange County more.

While it's early in the game, Kushner says there are signs the strategy is paying off. "We're starting to see as we give the community more, they are engaging more with us and spending more money with us," he says. Both circulation and ad revenue are up, he says. They better be, given the huge investment the company is making.

Kushner takes issue with the notion that his is a "print first" model. Rather, he says, it's a "subscriber-first" model. While digital is important for the future, right now, 90% of the paper's revenue comes from print, he says, adding, "the numbers are the numbers. The vast majority of the benefits are in print."

Given that fact, he says, it makes sense "to spend time and energy in a serious way on growing the print paper."

At the same time, all those new hires are not just going to make the newspaper better; they'll also add value to its digital menu. "When you're adding journalists who are covering new beats and writing compelling stories, you're going to strengthen your entire product," Kushner says.

The CEO/publisher says the paper has added about 100 journalists. The Register has increased its news hole, launched a stand-alone business section, beefed up its investigative team, added new critics and buttressed its town-by-town coverage. Kushner says the paper has also strengthened its coverage of varsity sports, faith and values, and the non-profit sector.

The Register does not charge for digital content, but that's about to change. Kushner says he and his team are exploring the logistics and should be ready to implement a plan in the next few months. "We spend a lot of time and energy and money creating fabulous and unique contents," he says, adding that the value of that content doesn't change depending on where it's being read.

Acquiring the Register and the other Freedom papers has whetted Kushner's appetite. He says he definitely anticipates buying more papers. High on his list of targets are the Tribune papers, which include the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.

Tribune, which recently emerged from bankruptcy, is widely expected to sell off its eight dailies and concentrate on its broadcast properties. For years, the news about the newspaper business has been overwhelmingly gloomy. But recently, there have been signs of hope.

Charging for digital content, long considered anathema, has given many news outlets an important new revenue stream. Legendary investor Warren Buffett, who as recently as 2009 said he wouldn't buy newspapers "at any price," has started scooping them up. Last week, he added the Greensboro News & Record in North Carolina to his stable.

Even the controversial digital-first, three-days-a-week-in-print approach that the Newhouse family's Advance Publications is taking at many of its papers represents a proactive response to the digital age as opposed to simply absorbing the blows.

But Kushner's bet is particularly intriguing. You can be sure it's being watched very closely both by people who own and run newspapers and people who simply care about news. If investing heavily in quality journalism turns out to be a winning business formula in Orange County, that's good news for moguls, for journalists and — most important — for the American people.

Rieder is editor and senior vice president of American Journalism Review.