DIFFERENT THAN THE REST

The California Register newspaper is a special kind of newspaper offering in-depth stories about people or events that other news outlets will not or cannot cover. We are an “old-school” newspaper created with good and responsible journalism. Well, let us qualify that. Most, if not all of our articles should be considered as Op-Ed which means they sometimes contain the opinion of the author. We do our best to ensure the English is without error, but even with all the help from our computers, we still have mistakes and typos.

English purists out there consider us to be bush-league journalists at best. We admit that sometimes we do not achieve the standard of excellence we prefer to have. Even though we make mistakes from time to time, we promise our readers that we will do our very best to improve our professionalism with each publication. We beg your indulgence until each paper contains writings that are as near flawless as humanly possible.

Today, most newspapers have been reduced to the size of an advertising circular. Major newspapers used to be 15″ wide and 22.75″ long. Over the years these newspapers have been reduced to only 12″ wide. It was a sneaky and underhanded plan to rip off their advertisers. Display advertising is sold by the “column inch.” As the newspapers began to shrink in width, the advertising rates did not because they usually had the same amount of columns.

So the newspaper organizations saved tons of money on the printing because they were using 20% less paper. Unfortunately, they did not pass those savings on to their advertisers. The California Register began as 15″ wide papers but reduced down to 14′ wide when we began mailing out each issue. For now, we will stay with the 14″ wide paper. If we change it in the future, we will increase it back to the 15″ width when we have more advertisers.

Not only has the newspaper size diminished, but the content of other papers diminished as well. As another cost cutting maneuver, some newspapers have their “display ads” created in East India then emailed for publication. They frequently copy and paste stories from the internet having little or nothing to do with the local area.

The practice of copy and paste has become so prevalent it tends to render an otherwise viable newspaper down to a point where it’s nearly worthless. And like most things today, newspapers today tend to prefer too much entertainment and sensationalism. The California Register prefers to give the highest priority to informing and educating our readers about things that directly or indirectly affect their lives. And, we also provide stories about interesting people regardless of their age that are just fun to read.

The California Register doesn’t normally provide weather maps, sports statistics, classified ads, comics, crossword puzzles, horoscopes, lottery results or Dear Abby columns.

The California Register believes in our senior citizens. The old adage that if you don’t learn from your past, you are doomed to repeat it. Sometimes we can learn valuable lessons from the past of other people, and having that knowledge, can shape our own lives for the better. We think people should pay attention when a senior citizen says, “Learn from my mistakes.”

To allow those who have gone before us to disappear into obscurity without discovering their colorful and life-teaching history is one of the greatest mistakes we can possibly make. Ignoring these living books of history while they still walked the earth is done at our own peril.

We like to tell the stories of great and wonderful people, while they still live. Sometimes, we did not know about these wonderful citizens until they have passed away, but their life stories are no less important. If they or their relatives have lots of pictures and information to share, we will consider publishing as much as our printing space will allow.

Sometimes we will begin to write a story about a living breathing human being, but they pass away before we can get the paper to our readers. In either case, whether it’s an article about one of our living seniors or an obituary, the story will stand as a living legacy of the person we featured.

We change our paper with each printing but usually have four basic sections,

1. Our Top Story section. This could involve an unsolved mystery that really needs to be resolved, or featuring great and wonderful people in our community who have (or had) interesting life stories to share. We prefer to honor our seniors while they still survive, but even if they pass on, we still believe in honoring their legacy with an article befitting their life achievements and experiences.

2. Our Potpourri Section gives us the latitude to bring you a wide variety of information. We could put most anything in this section of the newspaper, leaving the door open to a wide variety of topics that could be of interest to our readers.

3. Our Real Estate Section. The California Register will provide information about general real estate trends, new laws and feature properties from American Home Real Estate.

4. Our Advertising Section provides our readers with information about products and services offered to them from companies interested in earning their business. Our advertisers provide us the funds we need to print and distribute The California Register which brings thousands of readers information they just won’t find anywhere else. The California Register also likes to promote coupons for discounts to our readers which could save them a little or a lot. Don’t just toss the ads away, take some time to read the ads in case you might find something you could use or have need of.

All in all, The California Register is a different and unique paper which is worth the read. If you know of a citizen who should be recognized for their life achievements and/or interesting experiences, please contact us with a suggestion. We cannot guarantee everyone will receive an article but we will do our best to write about as many great citizens as possible.

READ AND ENJOY