The ''Santa Maria Times'' is a daily American newspaper on California's Central Coast serving the cities of Santa Maria;

Orcutt Orcutt is an unincorporated town and census-designated place located in the Santa Maria Valley in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Orcutt is named for William Warren Orcutt, the manager of the Geological, Land and Engineering Dep ...

; Guadalupe;

Nipomo Nipomo (; Chumash: ''Nipumuʔ'') is a unincorporated town in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. The population was 16,714 for the 2010 census and grew to 18,176 for the 2020 census. For statistical purposes, the United States ...

; unincorporated parts of northern

Santa Barbara County Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is located in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria. Santa Barba ...

and southern

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra founded the Miss ...

. It is published Tuesday through Saturday, and is part of Santa Maria California News Media Inc., which also publishes the ''

Lompoc Record The ''Lompoc Record'' is a newspaper in the town of Lompoc, California. Donrey Media acquired the paper in 1979; it became part of the MediaNews Group-led California Media Partnership in 1999. Pulitzer bought the paper in 2001. Lee Enterprises ...

'' and ''Santa Ynez Valley News'', among other newspapers.

History

The ''Santa Maria Times'' was established in April 1882.Storke, Yda Addi
A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California
pp. 517-18 (1891)(31 March 2019)

''Santa Maria Times'' In 1918, the paper became a daily.(1 July 2012)

''Santa Maria Times'' Owner E.L. Petersen sold the paper in 1938 to Robert and Stanworth Hancock, who in turn sold the paper to Kansas-based

Stauffer Communications Stauffer Communications was a privately held media corporation based in Topeka, Kansas, that owned many publications and broadcast outlets, including the ''Topeka Capital-Journal'' and WIBW, WIBW-FM, and WIBW-TV. The company operated from 1930 to ...

in 1948.(27 March 1948)
Kansan Purchases Santa Maria Times
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' In 1947 the paper bought up the ''Santa Maria Vidette'', ''Guadalupe Gazette'', and ''Santa Maria Courier'', and later the ''Santa Maria Advertiser'' Burl Hagagone bought the paper in 1958.(13 November 19170
history
''Santa Maria Times'' The paper had been owned by Pulitzer, Inc. at the time of the company's acquisition by

Lee Enterprises Lee Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 77 daily newspapers in 26 states, and more than 350 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is b ...

in 2005. In 2016, the Santa Maria Times won first place in the General Excellence category in its division of California's Better Newspapers Contest. In 2018, the Santa Maria Times received First Place CNPA Online General Excellence and received a 2018 Lee President's Award for its yearlong series "Green Rush in the 805?", and in 2019 received a President's Award honorable mention by parent company Lee Enterprises for the newspaper’s in-depth series "Wildfire County: Planning for the next big blaze". In November 2019, Davis Taylor became Regional Publisher Marga K. Cooley has been the Managing Editor since 2013. In March 2020, the paper was sold to Santa Maria California News Media Inc. a newly formed company led by a group of Canadian newspaper executives. Terri Leifeste became Vice President/Group Publisher.

References

External links

* {{official, https://santamariatimes.com/ 1882 establishments in California Daily newspapers published in California