This morning's newspaper marks the 10th anniversary of the North County Times, a significant milestone for a daily publication that many believed wouldn't survive its infancy.

After more than 3,600 consecutive days of publication, a paper created to serve the information needs of each North County community not only is it surviving, it's thriving on all fronts, according to Publisher Richard High.

"The idea from the beginning has been to make a good newspaper," High said this week. "We are far from mature —— it is a colt at this point. But we are developing a strong newspaper with solid financial strength and some of the most loyal readership in the country."

The newspaper was born in 1995 out of a merger of several properties.

In July of that year, Howard Publications, the family-owned parent company of the North County Blade-Citizen of Oceanside, purchased from the Tribune Co. its local holdings: The Times Advocate of Escondido, The Californian in Temecula and the Fallbrook weekly, The Enterprise.

The operations were combined and the North County Times published its first editions on Dec. 3, 1995.

This morning, as they do every day of the week, employees published 93,000 copies of the newspaper spread over eight editions that report the news of each North County community, and The Californian, which is distributed in Southwest Riverside County. Among the newspaper's 480 workers are 143 who were present when the merger took place.

In April 2002, Howard Publications sold the newspaper and 15 others it published to Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa, for $694 million. After the purchase, Lee kept the entire staff, from top management on down, intact.

"We've been very, very pleased to be associated with the North County Times and have had a terrific run since we bought the newspaper," said Mary Junck, Lee's chairwoman, president and chief executive officer. "The North County Times is a terrific operation in a very dynamic market and the staff has done a great job."

A 115-year-old company, Lee became the fourth-largest newspaper company in the country this year when it purchased Pulitzer Inc., including that chain's flagship newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The early days

It was far from golden in the first months.

High arrived at the Blade-Citizen in May 1995 during a period of uncertainty in the newsrooms of that newspaper and of the Times Advocate.

High was named president of South Coast Newspapers, the Blade's parent company, and less than two months after he came aboard it was announced that the Blade-Citizen was buying the Times Advocate and that the papers would merge.

"I remember thinking when I first came here that I hadn't a clue whether we could pull this thing off," High recalled. "I knew it would be really cool if we did, but I didn't know if it would happen."

There were no successful models on how to merge two newspapers into a brand new daily, and newspaper executives for other county publications were predicting the new venture would have a quick demise.

"These sorts of things almost always fail," High said. "They combine to cut costs, and we did the opposite. I was like the bug who thinks he could make it through the windshield and come out alive. We've made it through the windshield and in the process we saved two dying newspapers."

That journey was not without peril and missteps. The newspaper and its merged staff of about 500 employes was budgeted to lose $3 million in the first year of operation. The initial losses, however, were actually steeper with projections of future losses.

High quickly initiated a series of cost-cutting moves that included slashing 117 jobs, mostly from the advertising, circulation and production departments.

Like High and others, circulation director Mark Henschen recalls the days when it was uncertain whether the newspaper would continue to exist.

"It is so rare for a company to put together two newspapers that were going down to be able to pull itself out of that like a phoenix," he said. "We operate in a highly competitive environment, and for us to have not just survived, but to have thrived is close to a miracle because I know how perilously close we came to failing."

Henschen said that while the newspaper has seen its paid subscriptions and newsstand sales reach as high as nearly 98,000 before slipping to 93,000 in a recent audit, the newspaper remains healthy and vibrant.

Tense climate

Richard Petersen, who had been the last editor of the Times Advocate, was named the first editor of the North County Times and was at the helm until shortly before current Editor in Chief Kent Davy was hired in October 1996.

Petersen and Davy said this week that they remember a great deal of tension in the Oceanside and Escondido newsrooms.

"My impression when I first got here was that there were all sorts of unsettled things from the merger and a lingering fight between the staffs of the Oceanside and Escondido papers," Davy said.

"The predecessor papers had been bitter rivals and it was a difficult pill for many to swallow," he said of the merger.

Petersen said he remembers "having to cross my fingers" because of the dramatic change, not only for the staff of the new newspaper but also for North County residents who had been loyal readers of the Blade-Citizen and Times Advocate.

"The transition from those two papers to one was very difficult," Petersen recalled. "It was hard to get a read on the community mood for those of us who were in the eye of the storm, but looking back on it today I find the transition remarkable.

"At the time, however, we just didn't know if we were walking off the cliff."

Managing Editor Rusty Harris, who was managing editor at the North County Blade-Citizen when the merger took place, said it was a time of great uncertainty.

"It was scarier than hell," Harris said Friday. "We had no idea whether we would get the paper out on time or whether the public would buy it. But obviously they did —— we're still here."

High said the Howard family had nerves of steel in those first months because of the drain of money.

The expenses associated with introducing a new paper along with a new computer system and new press demands —- especially to accommodate the need for several community-specific editions of the paper each day —- represented new costs.

"I'm sure they were close to pulling the plug several times," High said. "The only models out there to do what we did were models of failure. Today, we're owned by a corporation that believes in growth and investing in growth, just like the Howards did when they set it up."

Ten years after that first edition, Petersen said he believes the newspaper has established a firm place in the fabric of North County life.

"I do believe that the paper today has something that it didn't have when we started it," he said. "It has a heart. There is a sense of character and compassion to the newspaper. It is local, it's entertaining and it has become a good friend."

Part of that heart and community connection, High said, are the charitable initiatives of the newspaper, and its relationship to two foundations, the North County Times Charities Fund and the North County Honor Campaign.

The North County Times Charities Fund, run by the newspaper under the auspices of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, raises money for a number of local charities. The North County Honor Campaign, a partnership with the Howard Charitable Foundation and the Armed Services YMCA at Camp Pendleton, awards $15,000 in U.S. Savings Bonds for the college educations of local children whose parents were killed while serving in the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Challenges and choices

Davy said he believes the newspaper has done a lot of "growing up" in the years since he arrived. And the paper still has a lot more maturing ahead of it, he said.

"Good people at a medium-sized newspaper can do great work," he said. "The quality is not determined by the size. For us to become a truly great newspaper, we have to continue to figure out ways to keep getting better."

Operating in one of the most competitive markets in the country with the San Diego Union-Tribune to the south and the Riverside Press-Enterprise in Southwest Riverside County pushes the newspaper to strive continually for improvement, he said.

One of the ways the paper has done that is to concentrate on local news, including community news that celebrates the people who make up North County and all the clubs and organizations and activities in which they participate.

"You have to earn your way into the family and to the kitchen table each morning," Davy said. "The family may not like us all the time, but if it can say, 'Well, you did cover Uncle Jack's retirement and you did take Aunt Marge's picture when she turned 95' —— that gives you a place at the table."

Challenges in the near future include establishment of a news bureau in Sacramento, an initiative endorsed by High, who predicted a larger newsroom work force and increases in circulation in the coming months.

Both men point to the newspaper's coverage of the war in Iraq as a milestone in the maturing of the newspaper. Three times since the war started the paper has sent a reporter and photographer to cover Camp Pendleton Marines in the battle to remove Saddam Hussein from power and stabilize the country.

"That's something way beyond what a typical newspaper our size would have done because of the tremendous cost involved," High said. "We did it because we cover North County and the Marines are a big part of North County."

While much of the newspaper industry has been cutting staff and reducing its editorial content as circulation declines and advertising revenues shrink, High said he operates from a different perspective.

"The premise of the North County Times and the only reason I am here is that I see the newspaper as a growth profession and a growth industry. We are not a declining profession and you can see that in all sorts of ways, financially and in our readership."

The readers

Readers are often letter writers, and the North County Times sports one of the most extensive letters pages in the nation, often publishing more than a full page each day of the week and two or more pages on Sundays.

That helps engage the community in an ongoing conversation, a conversation that is increasingly taking part on the newspaper's Web site, http://www.nctimes.com.

Davy said the Internet version of the newspaper is simply a virtual newsprint edition, one that is constantly being updated. And rather than representing a death knell for newspapers, Davy said the site is just one more way to add value to the overall product.

A new feature of the online edition is a place for readers to comment on each story, another way of fostering and encouraging a continuing community conversation on the issues of the day.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the sharp increase in fuel prices, another recent initiative that met with widespread reader favor was daily publication of a chart of fuel prices at every service station in North County.

"That's another example of giving the reader something of value in a time when they needed it," Davy said.

Readers, of course, are not always thrilled with the newspaper and can be quite vocal in their pointing out of mistakes and things they don't like.

Daniel Prinzing of Encinitas, a subscriber for the last eight years, said he doesn't like having to search the entire newspaper each day to find the editorial page, which is not anchored to a specific page each day.

He also said the newspaper could do a much better job in its presentation of national and international news. The business section also could stand some beefing up, he said.

In Murrieta, Donald Pechous, a subscriber to The Californian, said he likes the paper because of its emphasis on local news, although, he said, there is room for improvement on that score.

"Some of these local issues, especially the controversial ones, need more coverage," he said.

Pechous also said he doesn't like some of the guest editorials, and has called and complained in the past about some of those he considers more extreme.

In Vista, subscriber Emmet Peak said he favors the sports section above all else and likes the newspaper's coverage of local issues.

Richard Thayer, also of Vista, said he likes the local news but doesn't always agree with the editorials.

"I also wish you'd quit changing the comics and put them in the same place every day," he said.

The next decade

High said the newspaper will continue to invest in equipment to produce a higher quality newspaper, adding that the bigger investment will continue to be in people.

"This paper is unusual in that as a proportion we have way more of our total money going into people than most papers our size," he said. "I put my money in people and not things whenever possible.

"We have a wonderful calling ahead of us and as long as people accept us as a work in progress, and that the paper is getting better, we'll be just fine."

Harris, the managing editor, said he believes the paper has made substantial improvements in its first 10 years.

"We are doing a better and better job of thoroughness in our reporting," Harris said. "We are going more in-depth without getting so deep as to be boring. We do that much better today.

"Our biggest challenge is continuing to report the basic news of North County," he also said. "It is a very delicate balance as we move forward to try and figure out how we can keep on doing the thorough reporting and still get this important city and neighborhood news into the paper."

The paper has been challenged in recent months by The Copley Press Inc., owners of the Union-Tribune, which introduced a free daily newspaper, Today's Local News, targeted at Times subscribers. High blamed the free paper in part for a modest decline in circulation this year, adding that it has not significantly cut into overall revenues.

Davy said he believes the Union-Tribune's most recent moves and those in past years have largely failed to dampen the Times' prospects or growth because of the paper's commitment to in-depth coverage of local and community news.

And that, said Bill Mitchell, director of publications at the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based school for journalists and teachers of journalists, is the key to healthy, successful newspapers.

"It takes a big investment, but a newspaper that cares about local news and covers it well provides something that readers will never be able to get from radio, television or online," Mitchell said.

Longtime newsroom employees such as Fallbrook columnist Betty Johnston agreed.

"It's the only way you can do a daily paper in this day and age and survive," she said.

Greg Jex, who went to work for the Times Advocate in the newspaper's mail room in 1970 and now works in the plant's press room, said the technological changes in newspaper production and the wonders of a printing press are his greatest challenges and his greatest thrill.

"It's always exciting to see the machinery run and put out a finished product every day," he said. "We've come a long way, and it truly is amazing."

Milestones in the history of the North County Times

Nov. 4, 1886: The first issue of the Escondido Times, a weekly newspaper, is published.

May 15, 1891: The first issue of the weekly Escondido Advocate is published.

1892: The first edition of the weekly Oceanside Blade is published. It is sold in 1893 to two partners, one of whom promptly left to found the Vista Press.

1909: The Escondido Times and the Escondido Advocate merge to form the Times-Advocate.

August 1927: The Oceanside Tribune, a semiweekly, is founded.

Early 1929: The Blade and the Tribune merge into the Blade-Tribune.

1938: The Citizen, a weekly, is founded. It is later called the San Dieguito Citizen.

1967: The Howard family headed by Robert Howard buys the Blade-Tribune.

1977: The Tribune Co., the giant media company that publishes the Chicago Tribune, buys the Times-Advocate.

1979: Howard Publications buys The Citizen.

April 1989: Howard merges the Blade-Tribune and The Citizen, creating the North County Blade-Citizen.

July 12, 1995: A subsidiary of Howard Publications announces it is buying the Times Advocate Co., which includes a weekly, The Enterprise in Fallbrook, and The Californian in Temecula from the Tribune Co.

Dec. 3, 1995: The North County Times is launched as a daily newspaper throughout northern San Diego County. The Californian retains its name and shares staff and resources with the Escondido headquarters of the Times.

April 1, 2002: Lee Enterprises Inc. of Davenport, Iowa, purchases the North County Times and 15 other papers from Howard Publications. Lee pays $694 million for the purchase. A Howard spokesman says the deal is a family decision rooted in estate planning.

Dec. 3, 2005: The North County Times begins its 11th year of operations.