Santa Barbara News-Press declares bankruptcy, stops publishing after more than 150 years

Following a bankruptcy filing by its parent company Friday, a key executive of the Santa Barbara News-Press has informed staff that the daily newspaper has “stopped publishing,” Noozhawk has learned.

According to an email sent by managing editor Dave Mason: “I have some bad news. Wendy (owner Wendy McCaw) filed for bankruptcy on Friday. All of our jobs are eliminated, and the News-Press has stopped publishing. They ran out of money to pay us. They will issue final paychecks to us when the bankruptcy is approved in court.”

Mason had not returned Noozhawk’s emailed requests for comment as of Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday afternoon, Noozhawk obtained a copy of the Ampersand Publishing LLC Bankruptcy Petition filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California. Ampersand Publishing is the newspaper’s parent company.

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.

The estimated number of creditors is between 200 and 999.

According to the petition, a “meeting of creditors” is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 7.

The possible final end of Santa Barbara’s oldest newspaper — which was founded in 1868 and is described as “the oldest daily newspaper in Southern California” — is the most dramatic development yet in what has been an 18-year saga that shook both the local community and the journalism world, beginning in 2006.

McCaw, a Hope Ranch billionaire, purchased the News-Press in 2000 from The New York Times Co., which had acquired the newspaper in 1986.

Several high-profile events followed, beginning with then-executive editor Jerry Roberts resigning in the summer of 2006 over ethical disagreements he had with McCaw. His departure prompted dozens of other newsroom employees to resign or quit with him or soon after.

Those who stayed formed a union under the aegis of the Teamsters, which led to a series of legal actions and a debt owed to the union, according to public documents.

Ira Gottlieb, a partner with the Bush Gottlieb law firm in Glendale, said Ampersand owns current and former employees and the Teamsters union itself “in excess of $2 million.”

“It is owed to quite a number of former and current News-Press employees who are the victim of unfair labor practices,” he told Noozhawk.

The ethics battles made international news and were the subject of exposés in the American Journalism Review, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Vanity Fair and countless other publications.

The drama also was the subject of a feature-length documentary that played before a sold-out crowd at the Arlington Theatre in 2008.

The News-Press ceased daily home delivery in October 2022, and then terminated its print edition in June.

In April, the company vacated its historic Spanish Colonial building at 715 Anacapa St., on De la Guerra Plaza adjacent to City Hall, and all employees were moved to the Goleta printing plant at 725 S. Kellogg Ave.

Shortly after, it posted a note on its website stating that the publication would be available as a digital-only format “for now.”

About three weeks later, the News-Press informed readers that the shift to online-only publication would be permanent.

It also began to rent out its main parking lot at 715 Anacapa St. a few months ago.

It is unclear what this means for the future of its main building. As of several weeks ago, the door handle to the main public entrance had been removed.

Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com.