Local Stories by Local People By Neal Graffy

In the recent issue of The Independent former News-Press columnist Barney Brantingham laid out his complaints about the News-Press including the “bogus front page claim of being in its 151st year.” Barney noted that “T.M. Storke didn’t found what became the News-Press until 1901” and questioned where they came up with the “extra 50 years”.

The “bogus claim” has been a part of the News-Press masthead prior to and during Barney’s employment (odd he never complained about it then) and is not Wendy McCaw’s doing. Barney is also mistaken as to Storke founding the paper in 1901.

Here's the True Scoop ...

Santa Barbara's first newspaper was the Santa Barbara Gazette which printed its first issue on May 24, 1855. The paper folded in 1858.

Santa Barbara was without a newspaper until May of 1868 when The Santa Barbara Post began publication. The News-Press can trace its heritage - in a lineage of various names but uninterrupted publishing - to this newspaper.

Barney’s 1901 date refers to the year that Storke became publisher and editor (apparently there was no “wall” back then) of The Santa Barbara Independent, a failing newspaper which could trace its roots to the 1878 Santa Barbara Democrat. Storke sold the Independent a few years later and then bought The Santa Barbara Daily News in 1913 and subsequently repurchased the Independent merging it into the Daily News. In 1932 Storke bought The Morning Press which according to the volume number printed on its masthead was founded in 1863 though in reality it was a descendent of the 1868 Santa Barbara Post.

For a few years Storke kept the two papers separate with the Press reflecting a Republican platform and the News a Democratic one until finally merging the two papers together in the late ‘30s as the News-Press. Storke retained the volume number from The Morning Press for the News-Press volume number thus perpetuating the “1863 error”. I have yet to uncover the “smoking gun issue” wherein The Morning Press became an 1863 newspaper but it happened sometime in the 1890s.

In 1950 Storke replaced the Volume Number on the masthead with the words “Eighty-seventh Year”, a tradition that continued with annual updating well throughout the 1990s. However, in 1952 Storke upped the number of years from 89 to 99 and changed the Issue# to indicate a direct lineage to The Santa Barbara Gazette and its founding date.

During the New York Times ownership the counting of years was discontinued (too much work) and was simply replaced with “The Voice of Santa Barbara County since 1855”.

In claiming heritage to 1855 both Storke and the “New York” News-Press ignored the fact that Santa Barbara was without a paper from 1858 to 1868. Furthermore, there is no direct connection or even a remotely sympathetic relationship between the Santa Barbara Gazette and The Santa Barbara Post to help validate the 1855 claim.

Thus, the Bakersfield Californian which can trace its roots to 1866 is older than the News-Press by two years and may well be the “Oldest Newspaper in Southern California”.

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