The Santa Clarita Valley Signal is a newspaper in

Santa Clarita Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17t ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It was founded in 1919 as a weekly, the '' Newhall Signal.'' From c. 1979 to 2016, the ''Signal'' was owned by

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

-based

Morris Multimedia Morris may refer to: Places Australia *St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia Canada * Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry * Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba ** Morris, Manitob ...

, who sold it to Paladin Multi-Media Group. The current owners are Richard and Chris Budman, who purchased Paladin in June 2018. The ''Signal'' covers the city of Santa Clarita and surrounding unincorporated areas in the

Santa Clarita Valley The Santa Clarita Valley (SCV) is part of the upper watershed of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. The valley was part of the Rancho San Francisco Mexican land grant. Located in Los Angeles County, its main population center is th ...

, about northwest of downtown

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. By 2018, it was the only newspaper serving the city.

History

, based in

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Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and led by chairman Charles H. Morris, owned the ''Signal'' for thirty-seven years. In January 2016, Morris Multimedia sold ''The Signal'' to Paladin Multimedia Group.

Charles F. Champion Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

, the ''Signal'' new president and publisher, said he wanted to "build on the paper's award winning news platform", attract more local advertisements, and increase his audience. At that time the forty editorial, advertising sales, circulation, digital and production departments staff members retained their jobs. Champion's business partners were

Gary Sproule Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name *Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary Places ;Iran * Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;Uni ...

, Russ Briley and Ken DePaola. In June 2018, Richard and his wife Chris Budman purchased the ''Signal'' Santa Clarita-based parent company Paladin Multimedia Group in an equity purchase. Richard Budman, who had been the ''Signal'' publisher under Morris Multimedia from 2004 to 2007, and his wife Chris Budman, purchased the ''Signal'' in June 2018. Tim Whyte, who had worked with Budman as the ''Signal'' general manager until 2007, returned as editor-in-chief in 2018. Whyte writes all the editorials for the daily. In 2018, along with the five-day edition, the ''Signal'' began to publish a new Sunday magazine with free distribution to 75,000 households, featuring a "bylined column" entitled "Black and Whyte" by Whyte. ''The Santa Clarita Valley Signal'' covers community news which include government and politics, business, elementary, secondary and college education, public safety, features, entertainment and high school and college sports within the Santa Clarita Valley. It has its own editorial board.

Controversy

According to an October 9, 2018 article in the ''

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its contents include news and media industry trends, ana ...

'' (CJR), the new management led to a conservative shift in the paper's editorial stance, which prompted a group of progressives in the Santa Clarita Valley to start their own news outlet, the ''Proclaimer''. According to a July 24, 2018 article in ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'', the Budmans have espoused conspiracy theories and promoted the Republican Party in the valley. Richard Budman defended himself against allegations that the couple's politics could influence the newspaper's editorial stance, stating that the newspaper ran positive stories on Katie Hill, then a Democratic congressional candidate.

References

External links

*
Paladin Multimedia Group
Daily newspapers published in California Santa Clarita, California {{Santa Clarita