Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
This week the Santa Barbara News-Press announced they’ll be entirely digital for now.
A note was issued on the paper’s front page on Wednesday stating the printing editions will be temporarily unavailalbe due to “power issues” with their printing plant at at 725 S. Kellogg Ave. in Goleta.
The paper has not stated when they expect the issue to be resolved.
Back in April we reported the dwindling staff of the Santa Barbara News-Press had vacated the historic downtown building at 715 Anacapa Street.
The embattled newspaper announced moving all of its administrative operations, including its newsroom and advertising and circulation services, to the Goleta printing plant.
News-Press Building in downtown Santa Barbara (edhat file photo)
The Santa Barbara News-Press began printing as a weekly paper, The Santa Barbara Post in 1868, and after an acquisition in 1932 and a merger was renamed the News-Press. The respected paper won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 1962 under the tutelage of T.M. Storke. The paper was sold in 1964 before being sold again to The New York Times in 1984.
The paper’s current owner, Wendy P. McCaw, purchased the paper in 2000, and in 2006, controversy swirled the once notable publication as editors and writers resigned with claims of McCaw interferring in the newsroom.
More reporters and staffers were fired, or resigned, leading to numerous lawsuits and an all-out boycott of the paper by the majority of Santa Barbara residents.
Former News-Press journalists, Melinda Burns and Dawn Hobbs, penned an opinion piece in 2020 on McCaw’s “abuse of power.” They reported an administrative law judge of the National Labor Relations Board ordered McCaw to pay $2 million to the employee union and nearly 50 newsroom employees, in restitution for labor law violations going back a dozen years.
So sad that a rich out of towner was able to take over and completely destroy one of the most local and respected entities in our city. Seems to be the way of life for Santa Barbara.
I do not ascribe blame to one person; it is the way of the future. Everyone is reading news online. Thousands of papers are folding or going digital! This is not unique to Santa Barbara.
Let’s be happy that we still have a local paper online!
Darn – the Newspress was the best for lining the bottom of bird cages.
I liked to wrap fish in it.
So you did have a subscription?
More like, decades of power TRIP issues
The News-Press lost its power long ago when Wendy McCaw fired her entire news room staff. From there on in, it was only a matter of time before the Santa Barbara News Press became the Santa Barbara Newsless Press! RIP!
…or (Santa Barbara)less Newsless Pressless! I actually interpreted the “power issues” to be Wendy, not related to an actual “Electrical problem”?
Good one!
The News Press ceased to be a newspaper a long time ago when Wendy turned it into a right-wing rag.
Go fash, lose cash.
My bet is that this irrelevant rag will stay digital, trying in vain to compete with the Independent, Noozhawk and Edhat. Pathetic!
Now, let’s remodel this building and use it for the Police Department!
It has a great location and big parking lots, and renovation will be faster and less expensive than building from scratch. And it wouldn’t disrupt the public’s excellent Farmers Market, nor steal public parking space.
Bill: yes. if the city owned it or even had access to it. we sure can’t afford it.
Bill may have only a dream, but setting a modest sale price would earn tax benefits as well as good will (now sorely lacking). We all can agree with the maxim “nothing ventured, nothing gained”.
“The final step”! – https://www.independent.com/2023/07/23/santa-barbara-news-press-files-for-bankruptcy/
July 23, 2023 RIP 😉
“The petition lists Chapter 7 bankruptcy and notes assets of less than $50,000 and debts and estimated liabilities at between $1 million and $10 million. “… one of the rather interesting quotes from Noozhawk – https://www.noozhawk.com/santa-barbara-news-press-staff-told-all-jobs-eliminated-as-newspaper-stopped-publishing/
Who didn’t see this as the “end game”?