• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, March 7, 2014

Freedom Communications is continuing its aggressive expansion with the launch of a new Spanish-language weekly newspaper for Southern California, Unidos en el Sur de California. The new newspaper, scheduled to debut March 21, will combine 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, serving the Los Angeles metro area.
 
Unidos en el Sur de California will publish four zoned editions every Friday, targeting Orange County, Inland Southern California, Coachella Valley and Los Angeles. The fourth Los Angeles zone, set to debut March 28, will focus on southeast Los Angeles and communities in the San Gabriel Valley.

Together, the four zoned editions of Unidos will have a total circulation of 323,476, according to Freedom -- over 100,000 greater than the current combined circ of Excelsior and La Prensa.
 
The newspaper will also offer expanded coverage of local, national and international news, with three main sections titled “Noticias” (News), “Deportes” (Sports), and NEXT, an entertainment section targeting younger Hispanics with bilingual celebrity news, movie and music reviews, gossip, nightlife, fashion, and Twitter trends, among other things.
 
Freedom will distribute the new weekly newspaper through businesses in areas with large Hispanic populations, including Hispanic grocers, clothing stores, toy stores, electronics stores, restaurants, beauty salons, coffee shops and entertainment venues. In this section, headlines and movie information will be in English, and the rest of the content will be in Spanish.
 
As noted, Unidos is just the latest in a series of new publications from Freedom, acquired by the 2100 Trust in 2012. The company is also launching a new daily newspaper serving Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Register, which will be published and distributed using the resources of the OC Register, but will have its own LA office, with dedicated Los Angeles reporters covering local beats, according to Kushner.

In 2013, Freedom launched the Long Beach Register (which then added a Sunday edition) and also acquired The Press-Enterprise in Riverside from A.H. Belo in November.