A diverse collection of Long Beach residents who don’t want to lose their hometown daily paper are gathering at Tuesday’s meeting of the City Council and are inviting everyone to join them.

The corporate owner of the Press-Telegram—a name connected to daily journalism in Long Beach for 110 years—announced Feb. 29 that the paper would be placed under the control of the publisher of the Torrance-based Daily Breeze. As part of this restructuring, the Press-Telegram’s publisher and managing editor were fired, along with a dozen other newsroom employees.

Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga has placed an item on Tuesday night’s agenda asking for a study of the city’s financial relationship with the Press-Telegram as it relates to legal ads, public notices, announcements, brochures, etc. A brief review of that relationship reveals that the City of Long Beach spends at least a quarter-million dollars annually at the Press-Telegram. Several council members object to spending that money with the paper if it is no longer based in Long Beach.

Further, groups and individuals throughout Long Beach and surrounding communities are concerned about the the impact of the Press-Telegram’s new identity as an out-of-town paper.

The Long Beach City Council chambers are located at 333 W. Ocean Blvd. The meeting begins at 5 p.m.

Tags: Dave Kuta, John Futch, layoffs, medianews group, press telegram, Rich Archbold, The District Weekly, Tonia Reyes Uranga