Aaron Kushner Promises a Great OC Register But Will The Boston Investor Pass The Sincerity Test?


How is this for news enough to make Tricky Dick Nixon roll over fuming mad in his Yorba Linda grave?

Aaron Kushner–the under-40, Boston-area man and Georgia native whose private investment firm has bought The Orange County Register–consults with Ben Bradlee.

Isn't Bradlee the legendary determined Washington Post editor who helped bring down Nixon's presidency during the Watergate corruption scandal?
]

Well, no. Ben Bradlee ran the paper in the nation's capital, but Ben Bradlee, Jr. is a longtime, acclaimed Boston Globe editor.

This
distinction, missed by me earlier this afternoon, might not be that
apparent or comforting in Orange County's notorious right wing circles.  

The mere Ben Bradlee name is sure to fuel liberal media conspiracies for the bluehairs, trust-fund babies and John Birch Society offspring sipping their stiff toddies and bitching about Mexicans, communists, IRS agents and Democrats at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.

Meanwhile, current Register editor Ken Brusic is unwittingly predicting his own demise.

The new owners are dedicated to “quality” journalism, says Brusic, the
man who has helped to guide the paper into–how can I put his
nicely?–embarrassing and ever-declining mediocrity.

If onetime Texas Gov. Ann Richard knew the Reg editor, she might have opined that he couldn't pour water out of a boot with a hole in the toe and instructions on the heel.

Under
Brusic's leadership, for example, the paper's management will eagerly send, by their
own admission, “more than 100” staffers–a “flash news mob”!–to cover a
terribly critical news event, such as new attractions at Disney's California Adventure, but can't find the motivation to dedicate one competent reporter to cover a brazenly corrupt sheriff.

So what's out there on the new owner? The most comprehensive article about him is a February 2011 Boston Magazine story dismissively titled, “Paper Tiger.” Reporter Katherine Ozment described Kushner as a clean-shaven, handsome, lean man prone to empty but forceful talk. According to Ozement, the Stanford University
graduate exhibited “youthful exuberance.” At the time of the
interview, he lived in a $1.7 million Boston house with his wife and
three kids. 

Ozment's report may provide valuable insight into Kushner's plans to rebuild the Register. During his push to buy the Boston Globe,
he admitted that making a profitable paper in the current economic
climate is a mystery. “You know,” he told Ozment, “the reality is that
there isn't today a good, clear model about how you profitably grow a
newspaper.”

Kushner's most substantial business experience is in
the media . . . well . . . if you count selling religious and
inspirational greeting cards.

New Reg King

Does the fact have any relevance to current Reg staffers?

Ozment's weighty piece describes how Kushner's 2005 takeover of Renaissance Greeting Cards
swiftly resulted in cold-blooded firings in which, according to one of the
company's employees, staffers were lined up “like cattle” and fired
without explanation.

Stories like that might delight the Orange County Republican Party, Newport Beach billionaire Don Bren and Orange County Business Council corporate lobbyists, but there's still that unsettling Bradlee connection for the county's establishment.

The Globe's Bradlee told Ozment that he believes Kushner understands that a region's main daily newspaper should be a “prized civic asset.”

For
OC journalism's sake, we hope Bradlee's assessment is right. But
there's a simple, foolproof test of Kushner's sincerity: Will he keep or
replace Brusic at the helm of the county's struggling flagship news
outlet?

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