The ''Santa Barbara News-Press'' was a

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newspaper based in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...

. It was founded in 1868 as the ''Post'' and merged with the rival ''News'' to form the ''News-Press'' in 1932. On July 21, 2023, it filed for bankruptcy and ceased publication. On January 22, 2025, NEWSWELL, a nonprofit affiliated with Arizona State University Media Enterprise announced it had acquired rights to the Santa Barbara News-Press and intended to resume online-only publication.

History

E. B Boust first published the ''Santa Barbara'' ''Post'' on May 30, 1868. A year later Rev. James Ashbury Johnson became the sole owner and immediately changed the name to the ''Santa Barbara'' ''Press''. Years later Johnson was assaulted and badly beaten by Mayor Jarrett T. Richards on Election Day. The paper's following owners were Harrison Gray Ottis and then J. P. Stearns, who employed Theodore Glancey to work as the paper's editor. In 1880, Glancey was fatally shot by Clarance Gray. Gray was a Republican running for district attorney and attacked Glancey for calling him a hoodlum and a law-breaker in his paper. C. F. McGlashan, formerly of the ''Truckee Republican'', replaced Glancey as editor and bought the ''Press'' in 1881. He later sold it to W. G. Kinsell. In 1887, Kinsell sold the ''Press'' to Press Publishing Co., headed by Walter H. Nixon. He sold it five years later to J. T. Johnson and George Knepper. Johnson retired and was replaced by Charles McDevitt, who also later retired. In 1896, the ''Santa Barbara Morning Press'' was sold for $50,000 to a stock company called Press Publishing and Printing Company, with S. Howard Martin serving as company president and managing editor. The ''Morning Press'' was acquired in 1932 by Thomas M. Storke who merged with his paper, the ''Santa Barbara'' ''Daily'' ''News'' (possibly dating back to 1855) to create the ''Santa Barbara'' ''News-Press''. Storke, a prominent local rancher and booster descended from the Spanish founders of Santa Barbara, brought the paper to prominence. For many years his father, Charles A. Storke, ran the editorial page; his son, Charles A. Storke II, oversaw operations between 1932 and 1960. In 1962, T.M. Storke won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing "for his forceful editorials calling public attention to the activities of a semi-secret organization known as the John Birch Society". Storke sold the paper in 1964 to Robert McLean, owner of the ''

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'', who turned over publishing of the ''News-Press'' to one of his nephews, Stuart S. Taylor, father of writer Stuart Taylor, Jr. Under Stuart S. Taylor's tutelage news writers flourished, including Dick Smith, Walker Tompkins, and others. The nearby Dick Smith Wilderness Area was named for Smith, a noted environmentalist. Larry Pidgeon was a well-known editorial writer for the paper. The paper was sold to ''

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'' in 1985. In 2000 the paper was bought by Wendy P. McCaw, an ex-wife of billionaire Craig McCaw.

McCaw–newsroom dispute

In early summer 2006, six editors and a long-time columnist suddenly resigned. The group cited the imposition of McCaw and her managers' personal opinions onto the process of reporting and publishing the news; McCaw expressed the view that the ''News-Press'' newsroom staff had become sloppy and biased. Tensions had existed between McCaw and the newsroom since she bought the ''News-Press'' in 2000. Between July 2006 and February 2007, 60 staff (out of 200 total employees), including all but two news reporters, resigned or were fired from the ''News-Press''. Newsroom employees voted to unionize with the

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, and both the ''News-Press'' management and the

made multiple appeals to the National Labor Relations Board. Former employees have encouraged subscribers to cancel their subscriptions to the ''News-Press'', and have encouraged advertisers to cease advertising in the paper. McCaw's attorneys filed lawsuits against former employees, journalists, as well as competing newspapers, and issued numerous

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letters, to websites linking to the News-Press website, to local business that display signs in support of former employees, and to former employees who speak to the local media. The parent company of the ''News-Press'', Ampersand Publishing, filed a

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

suit on November 9, 2006, against the ''Santa Barbara Independent'' ("SBI")—where many former ''News-Press'' columnists had become contributors to the community weekly—claiming that a link on independent.com violated copyright law. The case never reached trial, as an undisclosed settlement was reached on April 28, 2008, resulting in a dismissal at the request of the parties.

Decline, bankruptcy and closure

The newsroom was reduced from 65 employees to 20 by 2016. That same year, the ''News-Press'' was among the first newspapers to endorse

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

's campaign for president. McCaw authored several right-wing editorials during the following years, including criticism of social distancing rules during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The newspaper's printed edition was later reduced to four pages before being eliminated entirely. On July 21, 2023, the ''Santa Barbara News-Press owner, Ampersand Publishing LLC, filed for

Chapter 7 bankruptcy Chapter 7 of Title 11 U.S. Code is the bankruptcy code that governs the process of liquidation under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. This is in contrast to bankruptcy under Chapter 11 and Chapter 13, which govern the process of ''re ...

liquidation. The July 21 edition of the paper was the last as Wendy McCaw said all jobs were eliminated and the business had no money to issue final paychecks. The filing noted $50,000 in assets and between $1 million and $10 million in liabilities. Not long before the bankruptcy, the publication closed its historic Santa Barbara newsroom and moved all operations to its printing facility in Goleta before stopping printing operations in June and going online-only. In March 2024, with a tentative bankruptcy sale for $250,000 to Weyaweya Ltd., a Maltese company, the court scheduled a final bidding opportunity for April 9; bidding started at $260,000 in $5,000 increments and sale included the domain names, website contents and social media accounts. Two former employees expected to be paid a combined $15,000 for website logins and backups. The winning bid at $285,000 was from a group managed by Ben Romo'','' which formed a week before the auction. The paper's historical archives, including newspapers bound into books dating back to 1870, were sold for $70,000 in another auction to the Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

Relaunch

Romo donated the ''News-Press''' intellectual property to NEWSWELL, a nonprofit affiliated with the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. In January 2025, NEWSWELL announced plans to relaunch the ''News-Press'' as a digital newspaper.

Notes

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