• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 29, 2014

Freedom Communications’ ambitious attempt to launch new newspapers serving local markets in Southern California suffered another setback this week. The company announced it is pulling the plug on the Long Beach Register after just a year and a half of publication.

The Long Beach Register, launched in August 2013, ceased publication on December 28, according to a spokesman from Freedom Communications, who added: “We remain committed to serving Long Beach, and will continue covering the city's major news developments in the Register and ocregister.com.”

The closing comes only a few months after Freedom shuttered another new newspaper, the Los Angeles Register, which published from April to September of this year before getting the axe.

Both newspapers were launched with editorial and business resources from Freedom’s flagship newspaper, the Orange County Register. Customers who subscribed to the Long Beach Register will now receive the Orange County Register instead.

The Orange County Register has had its own issues to deal with in recent months, including a legal fracas with The Los Angeles Times, which Freedom hired to deliver the newspaper, over unpaid delivery fees.

It remains to be seen whether any of Freedom’s new newspapers will survive. In March, the publisher launched a new Spanish-language weekly newspaper for Southern California, Unidos en el Sur de California. The new newspaper combines the editorial staff and production and distribution resources of two existing Spanish-language papers owned by Freedom: the Excelsior in Orange County and La Prensa, which serves the Los Angeles metro area.