Free Republic

Los Angeles (AP) -- The yearlong fight between newsroom employees at the Santa Barbara News-Press and its wealthy owner now centers on the firing of eight employees, some of whom urged subscribers to cancel their subscriptions as part of the dispute. Testimony was scheduled to start Tuesday in what is expected to be a monthlong hearing on federal charges that the newspaper illegally fired employees for attempting to form a union. The National Labor Relations Board has charged the paper with improperly firing eight reporters, six of whom hung a sign over a highway overpass in February urging passers-by to...

A nasty fight between the news staff and the owner of a local paper here has created some new casualties: readers. Take, for example, Eric Zahm, a hairdresser who hung a sign in his window taking Wendy P. McCaw, owner and co-publisher of The Santa Barbara News-Press, to task for not recognizing a vote to unionize her news staff. Within days, Zahm received a letter from a lawyer for McCaw, warning him that the sign - which read, “McCaw Obey the Law” - could get him sued for defamation. After consulting a lawyer, Zahm took the bright orange sign down...

December/January Preview » A behind-the-scenes look at the turmoil that engulfed the Santa Barbara News-Press after owner Wendy McCaw and her top lieutenants flattened the wall separating the executive suite from the newsroom. Related reading: The Sound of Silence By Susan Paterno Susan Paterno is an AJR senior writer. The day before the Santa Barbara News-Press imploded last July, the paper's top editors gathered at Editor Jerry Roberts' rambling hacienda to discuss the future under owner Wendy McCaw. The last few weeks had been brutal. With McCaw and her boyfriend – the paper's restaurant critic – now copublishers, Roberts was...

NEW YORK Newsroom employees of the Santa Barbara News-Press who are seeking union representation in the wake of the recent editor resignations have launched a campaign asking subscribers to cancel their subscriptions if the union is not recognized. The cancellation campaign is being waged by the same group of editorial employees who have asked to be represented by the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The group began handing out postcards last weekend to local readers that ask the paper to cancel their subscription if the union is not recognized and a contract is not negotiated. "We...

SANTA BARBARA Dressed in black and their mouths taped shut, reporters and staff of the Santa Barbara News-Press staged a protest Friday over a recent wave of resignations at the newspaper. More than 300 supporters roared with applause and shouts when about 25 News-Press employees emerged from the newspaper's Spanish-style landmark building and walked to a microphone in an adjacent park. Reporter Melinda Burns said newspaper staffers have been ordered not to speak about internal operations and were threatened with dismissal if they did. "We are very sorry we can't speak, but thank you for coming," she said, stepping away...

Local newspaper ownership has earned praise lately, but perhaps not in the offices of The Santa Barbara News-Press in California. Last week, six top editors and a veteran columnist resigned from the paper, claiming the owner and her management had repeatedly undermined news coverage. The journalists included the editor, Jerry Roberts; managing editor, George Foulsham; deputy managing editor, Donald Murphy; metro editor, Jane Hulse; business editor, Michael Todd; sports editor, Gerry Spratt; and Barney Brantingham, a longtime columnist who had been working at the daily since 1960 when he began as a copy editor. The News-Press, which was founded in...

Los Angeles -- Santa Barbara News-Press Editor Jerry Roberts, four other top editors and a columnist quit to protest moves by the owner that they say undermine the paper's credibility. The editors, who resigned Wednesday and Thursday, said owner Wendy McCaw and her closest associates have become increasingly meddlesome. They also pointed to the appointment of Travis Armstong to acting publisher while he serves as editorial page editor. "What we have as a paper to sell to people is our credibility," said Don Murphy, who was the paper's deputy managing editor. "On one hand you have someone writing editorials and...