www.oxnard-journal.com

Why The Oxnard Journal Seems to be SO against the Red Star Press..... As Editor of the Oxnard Journal I try to be as all-encompassing as possible with the news I get and report on this cyber-journal. Being a resident of Oxnard since 1987 I know a bit about the landscape. When I came to Oxnard, there was a local paper called the Press-Courier. The Press-Courier covered local Oxnard news from an Oxnard perspective. A - LITTLE - HISTORY... In June of 1994, the Ninth Street office of the Press-Courier closed forever and this loss of a local newspaper came from a few bad-business decisions. First, the Press-Courier heavily invested in a New multi-color Web Press that cost the paper 50+ million - bad business decision for 1993. After the big press went in, Courier management decided that Oxnard was not the only market for the PC. They organized an effort to throw papers in Ventura and for that they needed Courier couriers to run papers to Ventura. Then they opted to throw papers in Camarillo...another distribution nightmare. No one loved the Courier outside of Old Oxnard, so throwing papers in Ventura and Camarillo was a bad business decision for 1993. Press-Courier management thought it a tart idea to GO Head-to-Head with the two morning paper giants, the Star Free Press and the LA (LAX-itive) Times (X). Both the Star and the LAX were morning papers and the Press Courier was formerly an afternoon rag. Afternoons weren't good enough for the DE-Press-ed Courier. They had to go mess with the big boys. Another bad business decision for 1993. It was such a bum idea for the PC to go to morning delivery. When subscribers came out of their warm home to a dew-soaked driveway full of papers, what were they to do? Three fish-wrappers on the driveway, the Star, the LAX and the PC. What was the order of precedence to read these three things in the early AM. The Press-Courier lost out by not retaining their afternoon delivery,done mostly by teenagers. With the afternoon deliveries discontinued, the PC ended up paying mileage and polluting the local environs with auto emissions in the early morning. The tried and true method of having teens use their bikes or feet to deliver the Press-Courier in the afternoons was actually the best way to sell papers, when people had time to read Oxnard's own newspaper after a long day of work - not in the early morning. When Oxnard lost the Press-Courier in 1994, we lost more than a competing rag thrown into our car-port. We lost a Local News Source. The RED Star Press has done nothing but meddle and blemish Oxnard as much as it could. As a private citizen, I went on numerous occasions to the Oxnard City Council and told them of a need for a local newspaper and would always back up my plea by showing a headline or news story that the RED Star printed with a derogatory stance towards Oxnard. Truth is Ventura hates Oxnard. In Ventura's eyes, we are third-rate and third-world citizens. According to the RED Star, Oxnard is a community where Whites (Caucasians) flee from. See their story (4/22) in last Sunday's Issue.....Where do the all the Whites end up going...to lily white Ventura? As a Caucasian white who is from the whitest parts of New England, I resent the RED Star reporting racist and race-based stories about Oxnard and all the other news they report with a SLANT against my hometown, of OXNARD. This is Why I Started the Oxnard Journal and why I will continue to keep the Oxnard Journal alive. Editing and writing a news source that is alive with a pulse and flavor for the local community of Oxnard. I hope and pray I can find a Spanish editor to add the most important news link to this journal. A Spanish/English side-by-side news report for each and every story we run. I'd go interlinear to help folks learn English and Spanish. I want to bridge this community, not parse it out. The RED Star still serves a purpose and it fulfills it well within it's plastic wrapper outside the garage door....but the Oxnard Journal is here for the full pace of the news race; and on the Internet, we can reach the entire world. We may not be a "paper" newspaper yet, but we have our foothold. Over 9-thousand hits to our website since the first of April. We ARE being seen and read. Your support in viewing the web site and telling others about it is much appreciated.   Bill Winter =-= Editor== www.oxnard-journal.com