Just How Bloated Is OC Register’s Disneyland Coverage? [Alt-Disney]

Read all about it! Photo by Gabriel San Román

At a time when Orange County is quickly becoming an arid news desert, readers of all things Disney aren’t dying of thirst. Between a Toon Town brawl, an uncrowded Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and summer discount tickets for annual passholders, Disney theme-park tales accounted for five of the Orange County Register’s six most popular stories at one point last week. 

How deep does the Register’s Disney obsession go? This Mouse Muckraker surveyed three months’ worth of stories to find out. 

With Galaxy’s Edge nearing its soft opening, the newspaper published 45 Disney stories online in April, the overwhelming majority of them noncontroversial. Hype for the new land accounted for 18 of them. That tied the Register’s news, crime and feature stories about Anaheim outside the parks, which tallied 18 for the month. 

In May, Disney coverage topped out at a whopping 72 articles—good for more than two per day! Of course, with Galaxy’s Edge opening on May 31 to parkgoers with reservations, the Register went into hyperdrive, covering every imaginable angle. Galaxy’s Edge stories alone accounted for 64 of the 72 Disney write-ups that month, leaving coverage of the rest of Anaheim in the dust with 27 such stories by comparison.

The Register began easing up on Galaxy’s Edge in June with headlines such as “This is What International Yoga Day Looked Like at Disneyland,” “Main Street Electrical Parade Is Coming Back to Disneyland” and “Disney Fans: An Extra Hour of Soarin’ Over California, Just for Annual Passholders.” In all, 45 stories about Disneyland were published online last month, the only critical ones of the bunch highlighting the short-lived Main Street Cinema gift-shop controversy. Galaxy’s Edge articles fell to just 27, the same as that of Anaheim coverage. 

It’s official: The Register is in a Disney daze. With the newspaper lean on staff and page count, Disney stories definitely appear more prominently these days. And since we’re on the subject, in these past three months, Knott’s Berry Farm enjoyed all of 10 Register write-ups. 

Won’t somebody show Snoopy some more love?

17 Replies to “Just How Bloated Is OC Register’s Disneyland Coverage? [Alt-Disney]”

  1. OC register is a joke. I can’t believe they still charge a subscription. If you want real investigative journalism in OC , the Voice of OC is the only one publishing news that matters…with hard well research facts.

  2. Hu?
    Maybe you don’t like it but HERE in orange Co Disneyland is BIG News.
    What a silly article the only lack of news is Here I don’t like the register because they have always slanted the News like ALL Right Wing Publication Do at least Left Wing Paper don’t slant the news and label opinion “Opinion” but covering things that happen in or at Disney is NEWS in Orange CO Just like how the fish are running is in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.
    Give me a break you want to coitizes the Register there are plenty of real problems witht he paper but this obvious Pro-Disney stance is Laughable!

  3. What the OC Register doesn’t mention is that Mark Eades, who is their “Theme Park” writer, is also one of the officers of the Disneyland Alumni Club (in other words, a former DL employee). He’s also militantly against any social media posts or journalism that would have the temerity to criticize the company, despite them making money hand over fist without making a meaningful raise in salaries or benefits for those hourlies who deal with the guest BS and make all the profits happen in the first place. Eades is every bit under the snow job spell of the company as former members of Anaheim city government.

    1. Hmm. The Disney Alumni Club did share my last column on FB about musicians getting their hours cut and laid off amid a creative transition at the park.

    2. Hey MeB, I haven’t been at OC Register for two years now, and don’t figure in any of the coverage. Furthermore, you could at least use your real name.

      1. Mark: People putting their name to criticism in comments would be nice, wouldn’t it? At least the reader didn’t call themselves “LOLa Tocweeekly?”

        Readers: I’m not judging Fisher, MacDonald and Niles here (or past writers). Disney happenings can be newsworthy, but it wasn’t so long ago that “Mr. Anaheim” fielded questions about OC’s biggest city and the Register parked a reporter at every City Council meeting. Given how fewer reporters there are covering city beats, I just find the Disney beat’s continued prominence, by comparison, a little disconcerting.

    3. Apparently you aren’t aware that Mark Eades hasn’t written for OC Register for about 2 years now. There is a team of others who cover Disneyland.

      And yes, he used to be an Imagineer, which makes him a knowledgable person about theme parks.

  4. How bout the Register doing an article on the mess created by the changes in parking for employees. Causing traffic jams and irate drivers on Ball between Harbor and Euclid

  5. But as the article stated… “five of the Orange County Register’s six most popular stories at one point last week. ”

    So, the readers, using the website, showed that that is the type of story they want.

    If you look at websites, over the last few decades, the Disney and Theme Parks in general are very popular in general. Also, as for places to go on vacation, once again, a decent size portion of the general public choose them as places to visit.

    So if you are looking to earn ad revenue, why not deliver what the readers are looking for?

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