As he shut down the Los Angeles Register a daily newspaper he launched just five months ago Aaron Kushner found himself once again redefining "failure."

The co-owner and chief executive of Freedom Communications, the parent company of the Orange County Register, explained the latest retreat from a bold regional expansion in a statement to employees, also signed by co-owner Eric Spitz.

"Pundits and local competitors who have closely followed our entry into Los Angeles will be quick to criticize our decision to launch a new newspaper, and they will say that we failed," the owners wrote. "We believe the true definition of failure is not taking bold steps toward growth."

Kushner and Spitz used almost the same language in June, when they announced that Freedom would roll the recently launched Long Beach Register into the Los Angeles Register then brand new and impose companywide furloughs.

The closure of the Los Angeles paper Tuesdays was the final edition also came with layoffs.

On Tuesday, Freedom eliminated 29 newsroom positions across the company, the Orange County Register reported. Editors and reporters from both the O.C. and L.A. Registers were among those who lost their jobs.

The cuts leave the O.C. Register's editorial staffing at 220, higher than in 2011 before Kushner bought Freedom, the paper said.

The developments are the latest indication of financial stress at Freedom. But the move to launch a competing newspaper in Los Angeles would have been difficult for even the healthiest of media companies, media consultant Alan Mutter said.

Newspaper companies have for decades found it extremely difficult to move into new markets, said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst with the Poynter Institute. Today, with print advertising revenue steadily falling nationwide, that peril is only magnified, he said.

"The basic strategy was pretty badly flawed from the get-go," Edmonds said of Freedom's expansion into L.A.

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Freedom retreats from newspaper expansion by closing L.A. Register