Contact Us: What We Do
The North County Times Market and How We Cover It
The North County Times, part of the Lee Enterprises family of newspapers, serves a fast-growing, upscale market between the ocean and the mountains north of the city of San Diego. It serves as the leading newspaper in its core market with an average daily circulation of 94,360, according to the Publisher's Statement for the six months ending March, 2004.
This North San Diego County and Southwest Riverside County market is home to about 1.3 million people, including a large and growing Hispanic population (24 percent according to the 2003 Claritas). The economy is fueled by tourism, agriculture, the military, a growing biotech industry, construction and various high-tech industries.
The newspaper, with a staff of 500, pursues an overall strategy of connecting to the community with the highest possible quality news report, advertising and circulation service. It produces nine local editions, putting news and advertising before the readers, honoring the needs, traditions and unique demands of the individual communities served.
Those places include the cities of Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos, Escondido, Poway, Encinitas, Temecula, Murrieta, the village of Fallbrook, and the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base.
The newsroom focuses on an active, newsy presentation that places high value on local content ranging from the "refrigerator-door" items about service clubs, school classrooms and celebratory events to broad coverage of local governments, school districts and businesses. The local report is capped by deep, high-quality reporting on issues that include demands for energy and water, freeway congestion, housing costs, homelessness and the quality of education.
The sports department keys in on prep sports, covering 35 high schools with teams offering as many as 21 sanctioned sports. The staff also covers two junior colleges, San Diego State University, the San Diego Chargers and baseball's Padres.
More Information
- History of the Community
- History of the North County Times
- Recent Awards
- One Interesting Fact…
- What Sets Us Apart
- Current Projects
- Do Not Call Policy
History of the Community
The Diegueno and Luiseno Indians lived in the area long before the arrival of Mexican and American settlers. With the founding of the California missions, including Oceanside‘s historic San Luis Rey Mission on June 13, 1798, came settlement. Eventually, towns grew up along coastal train stops, and farmers came inland to the rich agricultural valleys.
North County's two largest cities, Escondido and Oceanside, incorporated in the 1880s. In 1952, Carlsbad became North County's third city. Others followed, with latecomer Encinitas incorporating in 1986.
Southwest Riverside County was once a collection of horse and cattle ranches. In 1964, the Vail family sold its 85,000-acre ranch to make way for the planned community of Rancho California. Residents of old Temecula, founded in 1859, incorporated in 1989. Murrieta followed suit in 1991.
San Marcos once produced the most eggs in the world, and Escondido once was the nation‘s second–largest candy maker. Bing Crosby, Pat O‘Brien and Jimmy Durante opened the Del Mar racetrack in 1937. The U.S. Marines founded the 200–square–mile Camp Pendleton in 1942. Scientists opened the renowned Palomar Observatory in 1948, California State University San Marcos broke ground in 1989. The California Center for the Arts, Escondido, opened in 1994, and Carlsbad‘s Legoland first enchanted children in 1999. The Wine Country of Temecula, with its 15 wineries, traces to the 1960s.
History of the North County Times
The North County Times is a relatively new, evolving morning daily with deep roots. The first edition of the North County Times was published Dec. 3, 1995, after the merger of two longtime rivals into one newspaper, heavily zoned into eight editions. The merger of the North County Blade–Citizen of Oceanside and the Escondido–based Times Advocate followed Howard‘s purchase of the Times Advocate Co. from the Chicago Tribune earlier in 1995.
The Times Advocate‘s roots extend to 1886; those for the Blade reach back to 1892.
Through the years, both the Oceanside and Escondido newspaper companies merged with others and underwent name and ownership changes.
In 1909, two Escondido weeklies joined to create the daily Times–Advocate, which was purchased by Tribune in 1977 (the hyphen dropped from the name during a design change in 1990). In 1988, The Times Advocate Co. purchased two weeklies: The Californian, serving the Temecula area, and The Enterprise, serving Fallbrook. The Californian later went daily.
Twenty miles to the west, the coastal newspaper traveled a similar path.
In 1929, two Oceanside weeklies united to create the daily Blade–Tribune, which was purchased by Howard in 1967. In 1979, Howard bought The Citizen, a weekly serving the beach communities south of Oceanside. The Citizen and the Blade merged in 1989 and were renamed the North County Blade-Citizen, with a daily edition and four thrice–weekly “South” editions. The South editions converted to daily in August 1995.
Both the Blade and the Times Advocate became morning papers in 1990.
On Jan. 1, 1997, The Californian in Temecula became the North County Times‘ ninth edition, and in September 1997, the weekly Enterprise was absorbed into the Fallbrook edition.
Recent Awards
The North County Times has earned numerous awards from state, local and national organizations in recent years. Among these are 17 first– and second–place awards in the past few years from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, including best news web site in 2004, best front page in 1999, best lifestyles section in 2000 and best spot news coverage for team coverage of the Heaven's Gate suicides in 1998.
In 2004, the newspaper won Best of Show in the San Diego Press Club‘s Excellence in Journalism Awards for its Firestorm 2003 coverage and best news web site and best entertainment web site, along with 22 other awards.
In 2006, NCTimes.com won Best Online Design and Best Breaking News Coverage from the San Diego Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Best of Show for Multimedia in the San Diego Press Club's Excellence in Journalism Awards and The Lee Enterprises President's Award for Innovation for its method of generating interactive user feedback through web comments on stories and blogs.
One Interesting Fact…
The eight San Diego County editions of the North County Times published about 6,000 letters to the editor in 2006 and the web site posted more than 100,000 online reader comments. The Californian, the Southwest Riverside County edition, added another 1,200 or so. The North County Forum, a citizens political group, declared in 1997 that the newspaper offered the “Best Letters Page in the Known Universe.”
What Sets Us Apart
The newspaper‘s connection to the community and its drive for innovation are notable. It has one of the lowest levels of churn among California newspapers. Core readership — the percentage of subscribers who have been with the paper for more than 12 months — is more than 70 percent. Fifty-two percent of its home subscribers are on “easy pay” credit– or debit–card billing. The ad team concept of pairing sales representatives with graphic artists in a highly incentivized arrangement has brought dramatic gains in advertising customer service and satisfaction.
Current Projects
The newspaper, in partnership with the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce and the city, is throwing a daylong community celebration dubbed “Operation Appreciation” on May 11 to honor and thank area military personnel and their families for service to the nation and community. Nearly 40,000 troops are based at Camp Pendleton and another 10,000 at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, bordering the southern–most edge of the North County Times circulation area. Units from both bases have had an active role in the war in Afghanistan.
The editorial staff is in a major effort to cover the homelessness issue following a decision by several cities last fall to not reopen a temporary winter shelter this winter. The project has yielded more than 110 stories and appears to have helped move the cities to finding a permanent solution.
Other Publications
- The online edition of the North County Times: Located at the URL www.nctimes.com, the online edition presents a full news report, classified and display advertising and a variety of services. It draws more than 1 million unique visitors each month.
- Super Savers: Published weekly and inserted full-run into the North County Times, with another 100,000 copies mailed to nonsubscribers. It is a wrap of display ads, coupons and inserts.
- Hispanos Unidos: The North County Times enjoys an advertising partnership with Hispanos Unidos, a Spanish–language weekly published on Fridays with free distribution of about 21,000 copies to San Diego and Southwest Riverside County readers from racks and convenient locations.
- Oceanside Magazine: The North County Times also has an advertising partnership with Oceanside Magazine, a quarterly publication by the city of Oceanside, with 65,500 copies mailed to Oceanside addresses and businesses and 20,000 copies distributed to Camp Pendleton.
Do Not Call Policy
This newspaper uses the telephone as one important way to stay in contact with our customers and our potential customers in the community. Because a good relationship with the community is a necessary ingredient of our success, and in keeping with state and federal laws, it is the policy of this newspaper that we will not make sales–related telephone calls to any person who has indicated a desire not to receive such calls. This includes those who have registered with state or federal “Do Not Call Lists,” as well as those who have previously told us directly that they do not wish to receive such calls.
North County Times may at times offer subscription opportunities or solicit prospective customers by calling on private residences.
You may make a request to be added to our Do Not Call list in writing or by telephone. All requests should include your name, address and telephone number. Written requests should be mailed to the address listed above and directed to the attention of “Circulation”. Your telephone number will remain on our Do Not Call List for five years unless you specify otherwise. Of course, if your telephone number changes, you must give us your new number if you want your “Do Not Call” status to remain in effect.
Please keep in mind that regulations may permit the North County Times to contact you even if your telephone number is registered with your state or the national list. For instance, if you were a subscriber to the North County Times in the past 18 months, we may contact you to inform you of a subscription opportunity even if your telephone number is on the state or national “Do Not Call” list. We like to remind customers as a service that their subscriptions are expiring and to offer special advertising opportunities to selected customers.
