Community treasure and über-philanthropist Sara Miller McCune uplifted the reborn News-Press this week, even as another venerable Santa Barbara institution moved to undermine the upstart news operation.
McCune, who played a cameo role in the tumultuous recent history of the News-Press, is underwriting professional salaries for a squad of 12-week summer reporting interns, the outlet reported Monday, effectively quadrupling its editorial firepower.
By contrast, the historic, private Santa Barbara Club in recent days blindsided the News-Press with a startling, censorious rebuke: Five months after inviting Will Belfiore, its boyish publisher, to address Club members as part of its “Distinguished Speaker Series,” executives abruptly pulled the plug — five days before the long-scheduled date for his presentation.
The cancellation unfolded behind-the-scenes in less than 24 hours, as a handful of influential members — most notably Noozhawk Publisher and club stalwart Bill Macfadyen — agitated to torpedo the speech, according to a review of email correspondence and conversations with half a dozen club sources, most of whom requested anonymity to preserve personal relationships.
The episode has ruffled feathers within Santa Barbara’s oldest social club, leading its president to add a special item to this week’s governing board meeting agenda.
At first glance a trifling tempest in a teapot, the cancellation offers a rare glimpse inside the Beaux-Arts walls of the Club’s 1904 Francis W. Wilson downtown clubhouse — an institution founded in 1892 that plays an under-appreciated but outsized role in the local power structure, where business, political, media, and multi-generational landowning elites meet informally to discuss matters of mutual, small-town self-interest.
As a journalistic matter, the Club’s blackballing of the News-Press is the latest twist in a decades-long swirl of controversy surrounding the landmark California news title. It’s also a snapshot of the bitter rivalries in Santa Barbara’s fiercely competitive media landscape, where a handful of underfunded outlets ferociously contend for readers, advertisers, subscribers, and donors while viewing the new online publication as an unwelcome interloper — although the News-Press traces its founding as a Santa Barbara publication to 1868.
“It was definitely a shock,” said the 28-year-old publisher Belfiore, a Santa Barbara High academic all-star and Harvard grad. “It’s a little bit surprising to have that happen here in my hometown.”
Oh, never mind. Last December, the newly-appointed leader of the relaunched Santa Barbara News-Press was delighted to receive a warmly worded invitation to address the Santa Barbara Club membership.
“I am 100 percent sure that our members would be very interested in knowing what the SB News-Press has been up to and what the future is going to look like for the paper,” General Manager Linda Spann emailed him, offering a spring slot on the “Distinguished Speaker Series” schedule.
On May 13 — five days before his scheduled May 18 talk — Belfiore was shocked to learn his appearance was suddenly off.
“We are truly so sorry that we need to cancel,” the club manager emailed him. “While some members were genuinely excited to hear your perspective … the News-Press also carries a complicated and controversial history within our community. Unfortunately, many members expressed strong concerns about hosting this event.”
Unbeknownst to Belfiore, his appearance had been targeted by a last-minute flurry of complaints from members, including Macfadyen — among the most consistent public critics of the News-Press’s return, who has sniped at it in his weekly column while urging community leaders not to support it.
When Newsmakers began inquiring about details behind the cancellation, Club staff, members, and directors were less than forthcoming.
“I can’t comment — it’s above my pay grade,” Spann replied, expressing concern about losing her job.
Macfadyen, responding to multiple voicemails, texts, and email from Newsmakers inviting him to discuss the matter, responded at post time with a brief email:
“Yes, I’ve received your barrage. As you should know, I’ve made it a decades-long practice not to comment publicly on that newspaper. If I ever do have anything to say about it, I’ll do it on Noozhawk.”
In a cell phone interview, Club President Ellen Robinson said that she made the final decision to cancel Belfiore, acting upon Spann’s recommendation, but declined to identify club members whose objections led to her doing so.
Asked directly if Macfadyen was among the group, she told me, “Bill is immediate past president (of the Santa Barbara Club)…his voice is certainly heard.”
Our story to date. From its frontier origins through the halcyon days of the 1950s and ‘60s under the late Thomas M. Storke, the News-Press shaped and served Santa Barbara as one of its foundational institutions — influence that grew after the New York Times acquired it in 1985 and briefly continued after it was sold in 2000 to idiosyncratic billionaire Wendy McCaw.
Then came the infamous 2006 “News-Press meltdown”: mass resignations, firings, lawsuits, union organizing, boycotts, and community rallies as the new owner waged economic, legal and journalistic warfare against her own staff (including me). At one point, Miller McCune stepped forward and offered to buy the paper, which publicly rebuffed and insulted her.
The events of 2006–07 began a slow descent into irrelevance and, finally, bankruptcy in 2023. In bankruptcy court, local philanthropists bought the century-and-a-half-old archive before it could be sold off to an offshore digital click farm, donating the print archives to the Historical Museum and the domain name and digital properties to Newswell — a nonprofit connected to Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
Last year, Newswell, which also operates news properties in Stockton and San Diego, relaunched the News-Press as an online outlet, bringing on Belfiore as its first hire. His first assignment was to rebuild the badly damaged brand by forging collaborative partnerships and building community support.
With speeches like the one he was slated to deliver at the Santa Barbara Club, for instance.
How the deal went down. A few days before last Christmas, Club director Spann personally invited Belfiore to speak, after members intrigued by the effort to rejuvenate a vintage local institution suggested the idea to her.
Club staff members and Belfiore quickly agreed on May 18 as the date, and he set about crafting a slide deck describing the outlet’s dramatic odyssey.
A flyer about the event was finally produced on Tuesday, May 12, and, shortly after noon, Belfiore received an all-clear email from Spann: “We’re excited to hear your presentation on Monday.”
Less than 24 hours later, at 8:45 a.m. on May 13, however, he received another email — informing him the talk had been axed.
Newsmakers learned that a few members who picked up the flyer on Tuesday expressed objections over lunch that day — in part from lingering distaste for the McCaw-era News-Press. At least one member also voiced concern that Belfiore would solicit donations, a violation of Club tradition (notably, Spann’s otherwise cheery email to him that afternoon also included a reminder: “We are not allowed to ask members for any donations. No passing the hat”).
When Macfadyen weighed in with Spann and other members during the next few hours, free-floating concern intensified.
Free marketeer Macfadyen may be forgiven for perceiving the News-Press as a competitive threat: among other things, the outlet hired Josh Molina, who had been Noozhawk’s star beat reporter and scoop artist for the previous decade, as editor in chief last year.
Whatever the motivation, his complaints were taken seriously at the upper levels of the Club.
Club President Robinson — who also serves on the boards of the Ensemble Theatre Company, the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, and the Carpinteria Arts Center — said she had looked forward to hearing Belfiore’s talk, but the 11th-hour flurry of objections was too much to ignore.
“Significant concerns were expressed by a number of members,” she said, acknowledging receipt of “Ten or fewer” emails in total. “Given the limited time frame, we wanted to give (Belfiore) as much advance notice as possible.”
Bottom Line. A week after being canceled, Belfiore remained bemused but characteristically sunny — and more focused on Miller McCune’s generosity than on his rebuff.
“The reason I was given was that members were uncomfortable with the topic, which was going to be the News-Press,” he told Newsmakers. “What I can say is that the story here is the rebirth of the local News-Press and how exciting it is.
“The outpouring of community support has been incredible,” he added. “That is the very crux of the story.”
This article was originally published by Santa Barbara Newsmakers and is republished here with permission.
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Says a lot about the members of the SB Club. Good for Belfiore for taking the high road!
Their news product is terrific but, a year after reincarnation, the News-Press has no discernible revenue. They need more than philanthropy to survive long term. And their decades of old newspress.com stories remain broken links which nukes their search engine visibility.
Not surprised by this one bit. Macfadyen has always been a self-important jerk, in my opinion.
I agree there. Dude is a jerk. I’ve dealt with him personally.
Sad, sick, Republican Wendy McCaw sure ran it into the ground. I hope they can generate a revenue stream.
Interesting. This makes me think a lot less of the guy running Noozhawk. He must be afraid of competing. I happen to think competition is good for businesses, and in life in general.
Yup, Snoozhawk has been a pretty hacky news source for years.
How so?
Posting the same story online once a day, all but ignoring certain high school sports teams while giving full page articles to others (alumni), spiteful and cranky editor, eliminating the comment section, many more reasons.
Why do you care?
2nd that about HS sports teams and cronyism. Ventura is boring g for basicso he looks to SB for fulfillment.
GT – yeah, even in the local area, there is strong favoritism for SBHS over other local high schools in reporting.
Sacjon that’s a fact I’ve witnessed numerous times. I’ve seen on many instances an athlete or team having a great achievement at a school other than SB – but SB’s low performing athletes or teams in the same sport or events get top mention – and the photos are always of SB. I’ve heard some coaches speak about this as well – Coaches send post game or event highlights and the important information doesn’t make it into the article.
100% GT. Yep, all the local athletes see it as well. It’s kind of lame. These kids work hard and often outperform SBHS but get little to no recognition.
Totally sacjon – I’ve seen numerous examples. Ugh.
The old SB News Press was quite guilty of this also
Noozhawk lost their best asset: Josh Molina. Probably another reason why Bill is so mad, well that and he doesn’t like competition.
” I happen to think competition is good for businesses” BASIC IQ GEEZ, Just WOW – Competition in business is a fundamental market concept, the sentiment has been expressed by economists, founders, business leaders, professors and philosophers Albert Einstein. Is there anything else you want to pretend you have knowledge of?
Everyone can see the enthusiasm of the new team at the Newspress. .To have the Newspress back and run by a former reporter under Ms Mc Caw is a full circle healing moment for our city. The Newspress dates back to the 1860’s. It was once run by Thomas Storke who significantly shaped Santa Barbara’s media landscape.by consolidating local newspapers, which helped unify the community’s voice. To have the archives of the former Newspress is to have our communities history in tact.w It is disappointing to learn that the former employer of the current Newspress editor would be working behind the scenes along with some SB Club members to cancel a presentation about the revival of our long time paper. It’s sad to see powerful people do unkind things to people that they once work alongside.
I agree. News-Press is just starting out and they’re figuring out the revenue stream but the quality of deeper journalism is there and much needed in this town. Independent does investigative stuff sometimes (a bit more now that News-Press is breathing down their necks) and Noozhawk doesn’t do it at all. Excited to see what the News-Press will do when they get their footing.
I have been very impressed by the new SB News Press. It’s still getting going but has already done some great reporting and is proving its value to the community. I’m thinking in particular about the piece published April 2 showing the disparity between what our sheriff reports and what ICE data show regarding immigration enforcement activities in and around our jails.
I have happily donated to both the new News Press (via Newswell) and Noozhawk, but will want to see Mr. Macfadyen address this before I make further contributions to Noozhawk.
Bill already gave his snide remark in the above article. Meet him once and you’ll see what we all see.
I always liked Bill, but this is poor form. Competition is good; the best product will do best, if allowed, without interference.
Bill is nice to people who have money and those who can give him fake awards. His actions speak louder, this is truly who he is.
Not a fan of the News-Press, but I wish them well. I hear people say they “hate” the NP because they disagree with Wendy McCaw’s politics. To that I say, “Good for you….let’s get over it and move on because it’s not that big of a deal at the end of they day.” The good thing is that we can each decide to open or not open their web page. It’s like Chick-fil-A, if you don’t like the company/workers, then don’t buy their products. Speaking of CFA, they are now approved to open at the former IHOP near Turnpike.
Wendy McCaw is no longer the owner or has any involvement in the current News-Press.
You don’t understand what journalism is.
BeeKnee – I find it strange that you, as a former teacher, are so willing to excuse toxic behavior and fraud in our community. Not only is this a horrible person and employer- she didn’t pay dozens of local vendors. She has appeared to be telling lies in bankruptcy court as well. On top of this – she drove a beloved institution of Santa Barbara into the ground. You seem very confused and seem to think Wendy owns the digital assets of the News Press – that may explain why your post is so elementary and filled with dotard-like analysis – and quite frankly makes little sense. You have discussed your love for Chik-Fil-A many times on this site, so we understand you support the hate filled politics that ownership supports – we get it. (you are what you support) It seems a little off-topic that you somehow compared Chik-Fil-A to the News Press, so I’m guessing the boxed wine might have played a part.
Sometimes accepting the alternative is much better than confronting the truth. Most people have their own opinions/thoughts/etc. and prefer to leave it at that. Some here seem to personally know Ms. McCaw quite well. All I know about her is what I’ve read, which is mainly from commenters here. My thoughts and views are not driven by politics or the ramblings of folks I don’t know (commenters). At the end of the day, the SB N-P is back in biz and that benefits everyone whether they want to believe it or not. It’s all good. Peace to everyone!
Just because you consistently ramble, as you’ve just demonstrated, doesn’t mean that others do.
BeeKnee “All I know about her is what I’ve read, which is mainly from commenters here. ” That is the problem. You know nothing about the subject your are preaching about, yet your fingers keep typing. This is typical of your posts. We get it.
My understanding is that she was the sole owner of the N-P, and as such was allowed to set policy. Some employees didn’t like her policies and decided to quit. Good for them. They were not fired…they quit. Big difference. If you quit your job, for whatever reason, please don’t spend the next 20 years complaining to the world about it. Time to get over it and move on. Life is wonderful, but it is too short for such nonsense.
You don’t know anything about journalism, obviously.
BeeKnee – Judging by a post like this you can always tell when someone isn’t the brightest bulb in the pantry. Even though you have no idea about what is going on with the News Press, or what historically went on with the News Press (by your own admission) your fingers keep typing away. I believe that is some flickering of an electrical storm inside of a fragile ego. For goodness sake, move on. You have nothing to offer here and have no knowledge of the subject .
Your understanding is WRONG. For instance,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Barbara_News-Press_controversy
“Many firings occurred within the context of employees’ attempts to unionize after the July 6, 2006, incident (see below section on unionization).”
What part of “Wendy McCaw is no longer the owner or has any involvement in the current News-Press.” are you too dim to understand?
I have enjoyed Noozhawk’s contributions to journalism for years, and still do, but McFadyen has always been a fat, bolshy fly in the ointment. He’s literally the worst thing about Noozhawk and I hope he doesn’t try and stand in the way of SBNP’s revival, which I think would be good for all of us. Wendy McCaw’s abuse of SBNP was a tragedy, demonstrating the destructive potential of a narcissistic and rich bully’s fragile ego, among other things.
Ruffled feathers in an elitist clique shouldn’t matter to anyone, but as we have seen here the distance between ruffled feathers and real destruction sometimes isn’t that far. Our whole country and much of the world has suffered because of our president’s fragile, deluded ego.
Agreed. Bill is doing all he can to tarnish the new News-Press. Betcha I can guess who he voted for too.
“Wendy McCaw’s abuse of SBNP was a tragedy, demonstrating the destructive potential of a narcissistic and rich bully’s fragile ego, among other things.” Very well said and I totally agree with you. It’s time to let go and move on from the past. Time to heal.
BeeKnee, You can’t help yourself.
Just like those Jan 6 thugs, eh?
Nothing to see here, just ignore the lawbreaking.
Bend those Knees!
You’re the only one here holding onto the past here, you clueless bozo … you’re the one who brought up and continues to discuss Wendy McCaw, but this post has nothing to do with her. You wrote “Not a fan of the News-Press” but that comment only makes sense if talking about the old Wendy McCaw N-P, WHICH WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT.
We miss balanced news, the left wing propagandist news outlets are the same old regurgitated news over and over. Boring and predictable , the socialist promote even bigger government expansion into our lives.
Hahaha… what?! You have more than enough right wing propagandist “news” outlets to consume where they regurgitate the same old hate-filled dystopian rants over and over.. as it’s clear that you consume it often.
Hey KEVIN,
1) name one thing the “left” has lied about.
2) you don’t know what a “socialist” is.
3) “bigger government expansion into our lives” like taking away our healthcare while forcing us to pay traitors who were convicted of assaulting police officers? Or more like forcing schools to allow prayer and the Ten Commandments (which no MAGAt has abided by)? Or like sending untrained armed racists into our schools and communities to beat, harass and kidnap our non-white neighbors?
Go on, tell us more.
“b-b-b-b-b-but COVID masks!”
Kev, check out https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart
If you want balanced news you should be reading BBC News, The Hill, Newsweek, and Reuters.
Socialism? Like bailing out the farmers who were killed by tariffs? Big government? Like Trump channeling all federal records into one database for mass surveillance. You really are special Kev.
Hey Kev, wouldn’t *balanced* news include left and socialist perspectives?
When you far right ideologues equate “fair and balanced” with your own ideological stance, it just further confirms the complete lack of intellectual integrity, maturity, or scruples on the right.
The expansion into our lives is coming from the massive tech corps that own the GOP and Trump. Can you say Palantir? This government-industry coalition has a name: fascism.
This certainly doesn’t speak well of Noozhawk. I also believe that when Josh Molina left Noozhawk, publisher Mcfayden did not publicly thank Josh in “print” for his excellent work over a decade (? longer? shorter?). no public recognition of his incredible contribution to Noozhawk both in story content and volume, no good wishes for future success. If it something was published, my apologies for missing it.
It’s great that edhat had this article that says a lot about what a great site this is. I used to use edhat, noozhawk and keyt for all my local news but looks like i’ll be switching out noozhawk for SB News Press. Sorry noozhawk but that was lame and no more clicks from me.
“SB Elites”? That’s funny.