HUNTINGTON BEACH : Newspaper Likely to Suspend Publishing

Faced with mounting financial problems, the Huntington Beach News, a weekly newspaper that has covered the city for 85 years, will likely suspend publication “to regroup,” owner Jack Kelly said this week.

The downtown-based journal did not go to press as scheduled last Friday, the first time local historians could recall that the News failed to publish. Kelly said he is trying to salvage this week’s edition.

Kelly said that the newspaper may have to cease publication for up to six weeks but that he is determined to revive the News. The paper, which Kelly bought last September, has suffered equipment breakdowns and a plunge in advertising revenues, he said.

“We have a tired computer system, old phones and last week I had to buy a new fax machine,” said Kelly, a Huntington Beach city councilman between 1980 and 1988. “Those things may sound simple, but we’re a tiny paper, so those are significant problems.”