Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
The Santa Barbara News-Press has issued letters to their subscribers stating they will stop delivering papers directly to their doors.
An edhat reader forwarded a copy of the statment that said this change will begin on Monday, October 24 and is due to labor shortages, higher gas prices, and “other current economic challenges that have necessitated this change.”
Edhat has received reports in recent months from subscribers stating their daily morning paper deliveries have not consistent.
The News-Press will still continue to print its paper which will be available for purchase on news-stands and local businesses. Coupons will also be mailed to subscribers who can redeem papers at select locations.
The flier states subscribers can still opt to have their papers delivered every day, except Sundays, through the U.S. Postal Service, although it does not state whether this will incur an additional cost or delay in delivery.
The paper’s website, newspress.com, will continue to operate and offer subscriptions to readers who can receive a differential credit to access all online articles.
“We know that changes are not easy and we appreciate your understanding and support of the Santa Barbara News-Press,” the paper stated in its flier.
No further information is avaialbe on the News-Press website or social media pages.
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 Santa Barbara residents.
The most recent news is from 2020 when former News-Press journalists, Melinda Burns and Dawn Hobbs, penned an opinion piece 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.
I hope this means that the newsmess will no longer be available in local hotel rooms. What an embarrassment that has been to our community. I wish Wendy would just disappear and take her conservative rag with her.
Agreed, Fitz! It doesn’t represent our community at ALL. I stopped reading it the second they endorsed Trump in 2016. UGHHHH.
I’m stoked that I won’t have to hear the delivery person’s blaring radio at 5:20am to the one house on the block that gets it.
I agree, they are LOUD and inconsiderate and often wake me up too for the 1 paper they deliver on my street.
I’m glad I don’t have to hear the delivery guy’s mufflerless car winding their way back and forth through the neighborhood at 4am. PTL
Out of curiosity I just read the NewsPress’ election endorsements. Pretty sad that our community newspaper is reflective of about 10% of the voters who live here. Endorsed election deniers and far right extremists. Really sad this is what visitors will think of us who live here.
Why is it okay for the left to question the legitimacy of an election but not the right?
VOICE OF NO REASON – False equivalence. When has a loosing Democrat president candidate not conceded?
When has a losing Democrat Presidential candidate fomented an insurrection?
To think Wendy paid $100 million. Fortunately it came with prized real estate otherwise it would have been a total loss
Let’s hope she fizzles out and leaves her little SB stage she married into pretty soon.
SELL THE PAPER ALREADY WENDY!! Something we, the vast majority of residents, have hoped for for years! An embarrassment and travesty given the long local history.
The last time I read a physical NewsMess, probably a year ago, it was about 8 pages thick, when a previous diner left a copy at Judge for Yourself. Sad path the NP has taken since Wendy and the Cheeseburger took control. I’ve been a boycotter since 2006.
They should escort Wendy out just like Former Chinese President Hu Jintao’s Abrupt Escort out.
Regardless of what you think of the News-Press, the owner is coming out financially incredibly well. There’s no doubt about the fact that she is going to make a boatload of dough irregardless of any way you look at it. The property she owns is now worth “gazillions” as they say. Not a big fan of Wendy, but all I can say is “Wow” when it comes to the business decisions that she has made. A toast to Wendy is in order for her, so raise your glasses and we wish you and your employees the best.
Wendy turns gold into lead. She has no clue how to run a business for a profit. She has the reverse Midas touch. Everything she touches turns to crap. Just like her mentor Trump.
The N-P property is worth w-e-l-l north of what Wendy paid. Investors would be lining up and rubbing their grubby hands to purchase that property. Imagine the amount of money that would be generated from a 1st-class hotel at that location. Look at how quickly the Scientology building was snapped up….walking by there yesterday I saw that the bar/restaurant (maybe it’s just a bar?) with the outdoor seating area was full-up packed with customers. The Scientology property is 1/10 the footprint of the N-P building and parking lot (enough for 70 cars…and double number after they put in underground parking). As they say: Location, location, location. My prediction would be when the N-P goes under, which is what some are really hoping for, Wendy will develop along with some high-brow hotel group. Imagine the views from the bar at the top of such a place at that location (basket of chips and a margarita…..”That’ll be $57…plus tip.”)
@2:45: I hear you and you are definitely “preaching to the choir.” There is no sense in applauding vitriol and nonsense. No one wants to be around those who willingly uphold “the self-esteem of ignorant fascists who might otherwise begin to question their belief in demagogues.” That part I definitely do not agree with. Bottom line is that each of us picks/chooses how we want to live. I am someone who often says, “Live and let live” and mean just that. Others who say “live and let live” only want you to live within the confines of what t-h-e-y deem acceptable for others. What they are really saying is they want you to live the way that they want you to live and if you don’t, you are a this, that, and other terrible things. At least we are pretty close to being on the same page, which is a good thing in these divisive times.
Is there anyone who still reads this right-wing yellow rag?
Stopped reading that mess of a paper the second they endorsed Trump.
The current articles are mostly ‘bought’ from some right wing source. Center Square??? Look that one up. That is what fills the newspress. Hardly a local paper.
The LA Times isn’t any better. A billionaire bought the paper and put his daughter in charge.
A fiasco a bit like Robert Mugabe thinking his family members with no farming experience could run Zimbabwe’s breadbasket. LA has sports and local politics enough to keep the fire more or less burning, but the paper is 2/3 smaller and also blows away in a breeze. It’s opposite politically to the SB News Press, but predictably partisan, so no real urgency to read the article because you already know every weather story gets folded into climate change, the articles always pimp the union spin.
They are both a waste of a perfectly fine tree
I left that whole chapter and episode thinking everyone on both sides deserved each other.
Mc Caw did everything assbackwards and the NP staff came off like petulant brats.
Luckily for the petulant, their boss/owner was too cheap and too dumb to have hired highest quality counsel on the disciplinary firing process or they’d be writing stories on date palm pests and home sunscreen remedies for the Indio Desert Sun
They could hire 14 year olds to deliver them on bikes. I did that as a first job. Landing papers on the door mat was mandatory. Oh wait, CA made that illegal! So after doing that 40 yrs ago, a few years later I watched a beatup old van drive down the road and saw papers fly out the window barely making the sidewalk. Yeah, that was progress.
Buford. I agree…. but
You’d do jail time time today for hiring 14 year olds riding bikes with no helmet before dawn.
It’s been a long way down.
News Press stopped delivering to me in 2008. But they still billed me. Calls to Customer Service got sympathy but no improvement in deliveries. So I stopped paying and they just went away. If they are now not going to deliver the paper I wonder how anyone will be able to subscribe to it and with no subscribers who will buy it.
The next step should be turning the NP building into apartments and opening the two parking lots to the public.
Very sorry to hear the NP is struggling. Most Newspapers are in the same boat, Lompoc Record, Santa Maria Times etc. Miss the Comic Strip and Sports section. Use to deliver the Harold Examiner as a kid, once owned by William Hearst.
Surprisingly, the Daily (weekly) Nexus is a liberal rag, but pretty well written.
Last but not least, there’s the Indy. This “newspaper “ reminds us by “journalists” like Nick Welch and Tom Tomorrow the virtues of liberal ideology and the evils of conservatism.
“… the virtues of liberal ideology and the evils of conservatism.”
Correct.
You’re ridiculous
the Antelope Valley Press stopped home deliveries Oct 1st.
and mails the paper 5 days a week – Tuesday thru Saturday –
when the Post Office is delivering. Most Mondays are now
Holidays.
i like the idea of the SB News Press putting papers in motel
rooms. down below, most motels just put the USA Today out.
or visitors get to see where to go and eat if not have a computer
or smart phone, no not use them for surfing.
but papers have been removed from most gas statioins and even
market for yearss.
a few 7/11s still carry the papers. and the Epoch Times.
My grandfather was a general-news reporter for the New-Press in the early 40s and worked there for about five years. He said that even back then, the owner (Storke) had a hand in the “bent” of news articles. Newspaper/media owners alway/always have a say in the angle that their papers/magazine/tv/radio take. Even modern-day media owners such as Mark Zuckerberg play a HUGE part of what does or does not fly on their platform. The circulation number for the N-P are in line with newspapers nationally. For example, back in 2012 the New York Times had an average paid Sunday circulation of 2.4 million….in 2021 that number was hovering just above 800 thousand….and…their stock in the last 12 months is down by approximately 50% ($60 to $30 with a downward trend). Sorry for any of you who decided to hang on to your NYT.
@1:45: Great points that you make and I agree with you. The article was about the physical newspaper no longer being delivered to homes, so my comment on the NYT was the physical newspaper, and not their online service. I failed to clarify that in my remarks. Some say that Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, plays a huge role in the “angle” of the articles or the how his newspaper covers stories.
…then there’s Edhat, purveyors of righteousness, beacon of light and emboldens truth, justice and (dare I say fearing sanction) the American way!
SB News (De)pressed has gone downhill before Wendy McCaw took over, and it became worse under her ownership. My sister use to deliver it back in the early 80’s when kids use deliver it late afternoons, early evenings, rain or shine. Then it became an early morning delivery service by adults using their cars. And it has become a small local newspaper with very few pages. Heck! The SB Independent has a lot of more pages than SB News (De)pressed and more local news as well as Noozhawk and of course here on edhat both online, and SB Independent. And as far as newspaper stands for the SB News (De)pressed I have not seen one on State St. or on Milpas street I think it was about 2 or 3 years back someone asked here on edhat where in SB can they find a newsstand for the SB News (De)pressed. And, yes I use to deliver the L. A. Times back in late 1978 to early 1980 delivering it early in the mornings in my very loud-noisy 1958 Volkswagen Bug that I did get some complaints about it. So I do get it 5144 and SBSAND.
“Extra-Extra!!!! Read all about it!!!! SB News (De)pressed mister?”
“Sure kid. Keep the change.”
“Gee!!!! Thanks mister!!!!”
It is not a paper, it more like a flyer. When the wind blows it ends up down the street.
The news press has been a joke for a couple decades now and I can’t believe people still subscribe to it, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
(Go ahead and keep calling me a MAGA, fascist, trumper, etc.)
Crushing people with opposing political views and then dancing on their graves is the prime hobby of fascists