New Haven Register
Template:Wikify-date The New Haven Register is a Connecticut newspaper based out of New Haven, Connecticut. It is the second largest newspaper in Connecticut, behind only The Hartford Courant. It is owned by Journal Register Company based out of Trenton, New Jersey.
It was established around 1812, making it one of the oldest continuously published newspapers in the U.S.
Background
The New Haven Register, with about 16 reporters (not including sports, entertainment, and lifestyle reporters, and correspondents), supposedly covers 21 municipalities within New Haven County. The newspaper has one reporter in Hartford.
The paper's Sunday circulation is about 90,000–95,000. On weekdays approximately 66,000–70,000 copies are sold. Its main daily competitors are the Connecticut Post, located in Bridgeport, which competes for coverage of Stratford, Milford, and the Naugatuck valley -- Ansonia, Derby, Shelton, Beacon Falls, Naugatuck, Bethany, Oxford, and Seymour -- and the Waterbury Republican-American which covers Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley. In 2005, the Republican-American expanded with a Valley Bureau, headed by a former Register Valley bureau chief.
The paper's staff was reduced in the 1990s, like most newsrooms in the U.S.: reductions were by attrition. Fewer reporters on staff has reduced the Register's ability to aggressively cover stories; however, the sports department has been selected as one of the top 10 in the nation twice in three years. Still, over the past year the Register has lost some 10 editorial staff members, and has yet to fill any of those positions.
The current (March 2006) Editor-in-Chief of the New Haven Register is Jack Kramer, and its publisher is Kevin Walsh. Helen Bennett-Harvey is the suburban editor, and Mark Brackenbury is the managing editor. The editorial lean of the Register is generally to the right.
Competing newspapers
The competition the Register faces from the Connecticut Post (or, as some still call it, the Bridgeport Post) is somewhat more serious, as it has more reporters and more intelligent leaders.
The differences between the Register, the Republican-American, and the Post are marginal at best - no paper really rivals one another, except in terms of design and circulation. National (and sometimes statewide), and international issues are covered by the Associated Press, which sells its wire copy to each paper. Columnists such as Bill O'Reilly and Robert Novak may appear in the Register, they are however nationally syndicated, and the columns do not specifically reflect issues in New Haven, or even Connecticut. Using copy from the Associated Press, Reuters (another newswire service) or publishing work by syndicated columnists is standard practice among small and medium-sized daily newspapers.
The Register also competes locally with the New Haven Advocate, a weekly alternative publication. Given that the Advocate is not published daily, it does not compete with the Register for breaking news, and the papers are vastly different. The Advocate, however, often criticizes the Register's editorial policies: In late 2005, Advocate columnist Tom Gogola noticed Register editor Dave McClendon copied a press release (printing it almost word for word, and putting his name on it), and lambasted the Reg (the Adovcate's pet name for the Register) for allowing such a journalistic atrocity.
Despite being the "underdog," the Advocate is part of the powerful newspaper chain, the Tribune Company, which owns such papers as New York Newsday, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the Hartford Courant.
Another "paper" exists in New Haven, the web-based New Haven Independent, which is internet-based.
Coverage
Some recent (August 2006) issues covered by the Register include New Haven Mayor John DeStefano's gubernatorial bid; weather; a spate of shootings in New Haven; Joe Lieberman vs. Ned Lamont; the New Alliance Bank stock scandal; and the downfall of Milford Superintendent of schools Greg Firn.
Since the Register has very little staff, and the three top editors refuse to stand up to the corporate side of the paper to get more reporters hired, coverage is sparse. "Register Interns" regularly appear on the front page of the paper, and they also dominate the Sunday edition.
Ownership
The Register is owned by the Journal Register Company, a small-time newspaper chain that owns hundreds of papers in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The Register is the "flagship" paper of the Journal Register Company - the supposed best, largest, and most popular newspaper owned by the company. In Connecticut, the Journal Register Company owns not only the Register, but also the New Britain Herald, the Middletown Press, the Bristol Press, and the Torrington Register-Citizen. JRC also owns weekly papers in Connecticut: the Guilford Shoreline Times, the Old Saybrook Pictorial Gazette, the New London Dolphin, the Branford Review, the Clinton Recorder, the Colchester Regional Standard, the Milford Weekly, the Hamden Chronicle, the Shelton Weekly, the Stratford Bard, the Orange Bulletin, the East Haven Advertiser, the West Haven News, the Wallingford Voice, the East Hartford Gazette, the Thomaston Express, the West Hartford News, the Wethersfield Chronicle, the Newington Town Crier, the Windsor Journal, the Rocky Hill Post, the Bloomfield Journal, the Windsor Locks Journal, the Avon Courier, the Farmington Post, the Simsbury Post, the Tri-Town Post, and Connecticut Magazine.
In total, JRC owns 27 daily, and 327 weekly newspapers throughough the aforementioned states. The company claims that through its publications, it reaches 7.4 million households in a coverage area of 19 million.
Location
The Register's main office is located at 40 Sargent Drive in New Haven. It has bureaus located in Ansonia, Milford and Old Saybrook, along with a single reporter in Hartford, and Wallingford.