It started as an effort to save the stories behind more than 150 years of Santa Barbara County’s history. But, it may lead to the rebirth of the region’s oldest media outlet, the Santa Barbara News-Press.
"When the News-Press filed for bankruptcy in 2023, I heard from folks who used to work there, and people who've been in the local media community for a long time that the archives of the News-Press were of signifcant historic value," said Ben Romo.
He said he and others learned that as part of the newspaper’s bankruptcy, the archives, which are in effect the county’s history, would be auctioned by a bankruptcy court.
"I work with folks who are philanthropic; it's part of the work I do as a consultant," said Romo. "I had a client, who's also a friend, Jason Yardi. We read the paper as kids, and just loved the paper. We were watching the issue and talking to people about the historic value of these archives. It was uncertain as to what might happen to them."
When the bidding started, a company from Malta bid for the newspaper’s digital assets, as well as its name and other intellectual property. The group of local philanthropists led by Romo made a $285,000 bid, and won.
"We wanted to keep those assets local," said Romo.
They also helped the Santa Barbara Historical Museum put together a successful bid for the newspaper’s physical archives. Romo's group also gave the museum access to the digital files.
"Lo and behold, also included was the trademark, and the copyright. We kind of inadvertently ended up owning the assets that were necessary to relaunch the business," said Romo.
Romo says the group had no interest in trying to get into the news business. They started talking to nonprofit groups working to save, and bolster journalism. It led them to a relatively new organization focused on supporting local journalism. They’ve donated the News-Press to the group.
"NEWSWELL...we're a nonprofit based at Arizona State University," said Nicole Carroll, who is is NEWSWELL’s Executive Director, "We provide backend operations and business strategies to help news sites become or remain sustainable. The plan is local journalists know their markets best. They will report, present, and publish the news. NEWSWELL will offer the backend support to help make them more successful."
The idea would be to restart the News-Press as a locally based online media news outlet. If that happens, it could compete with Noozhawk, the online newspaper founded in 2007 which has become one of the region’s most respected new sources.
"We've been operational with our properties since about the beginning of May," said Carroll. "We have two other prototype sites. One is the Times of San Diego, and the other is Stocktonia, in Stockton, California, to test these strategies. Do efficiencies of scale work? If we take the business operations off local news, does that give them more time to report the news? So far, the answer is yes."
She said in both Stockton and San Diego, the outlets have been able to hire more reporters and produce more news.
Carroll says they’ve been meeting with community members and existing media in Santa Barbara County to see what can be created to better serve the region.
"There are news sources in Santa Barbara. That's fantastic," said Carroll. "We believe a town of that size, and of such different needs, needs even more news. We aren't there to compete...we're there to collaborate."
The Santa Barbara News-Press is an iconic local name which ended up a bit tarnished by the time of its bankruptcy.
It was founded in 1868.
After a series of owners, it was purchased by in the 1930’s by Thomas Storke, a businessman and rancher. In 1962, the newspaper won one of journalism’s top honors, a Pulitzer Prize.
It was owned by the New York Times for more than a decade. Local millionaire Wendy McCaw bought it in 2000. In 2006, there was a major controversy involving the paper which received national attention. Staff members accused the owner of trying to interfere with editorial content, and more than 60 quit or were fired. There was more controversy over staff efforts to unionize.
Over the years, the paper shrunk in the number of pages it published, as well as the size of its staff. With the newspaper industry in general hurt by falling advertising, and dropping circulation, the paper finally filed for bankruptcy in 2023.
Does Romo think the paper’s difficult final years will hurt the effort to revive it?
"We have heard from so many people who are just so happy and hopeful about the News-Press being relaunched in a new form that is a nonprofit model," said Romo.
NEWSWELL officials said they’ll spend the next few months researching the community’s needs, and then create a timeline for the project’s startup.
