Ex-Daily News chief lands in Ventura.

Ex-Daily News chief lands in Ventura

Steve Morris, past publisher of the Daily News in Woodland Hills, has found a new home: Ventura Today, a daily community newspaper in the City of Ventura with a circulation of 18,000.

As Morris, 38, sees it, he has a catbird seat in the hottest newspaper

The Times is beefing up its Ventura bureau - it is hiring 35 reporters and editors - while the Daily News is readying a new printing plant that will allow a circulation drive in Ventura soon.

The Times needs a win, but his former employer will probably prevail, said Morris. "The management of the Times has lost three in a row, in Denver, San Diego and Orange County - they want to win," said Morris.

But the Daily News is a cheaper buy - $7 for an initial monthly subscription, compared with $12.80 for the Times, said Morris. Now that the Daily News is almost as thick as the Times, the "perceived value" of both papers, to many readers, is equal. Morris' prediction: Ventura County readers will pick papers by their pocketbooks.

Morris advises the Times' top dogs to "Kill the Los Angeles Times Magazine and don't go for territory, go for demographics." By that, Morris means the Times should seek upscale readers, but not in any particular geographic market, in the manner of the The New York Times.

Morris said he is happily sitting on the sidelines at Ventura Today, of which he is a part-owner. "The City of Ventura is north of the circulation war zone, and we are just a small community newspaper," he said. "It is fun just to watch."

Morris, who left the Daily News in June of last year, is quiet on the reasons for his departure, but still says Jack Kent Cooke's paper "is a great operation."

PHOTO : Morris: Still a fan of his former paper