Wendy McCaw Shuts Down Goleta Valley Voice

What the Independent fails to mention is that the Chicago Tribune also layed off additional newsroom people today, just 4 months after laying off 14 percent of its newsroom staff (over 80 people). Times are indeed hard for print media, regardless.

What a shame, but certainly inevitable, considering the sorry state of the SB News-Press.

I don't get the causal link the "Independent fails to mention" (as pointed out by News-Press management sock-puppet "mystikrich"), which occurred at the Chicago Tribune.

...unless Wendy McCaw has conference calls with Sam Zell to coordinate the gutting of their newspapers....?

I'm saddened , but not surprised by this.When in Santa Barbara I enjoyed the Goleta news. But, mostly in Baja, I depend on Indy to keep me posted. Naturally the SBNP and whatever else "she" owned was not avilable via internet.

In the old days, we had good coverage and Steve Sullivan did a great job. There was a local SBNP office on Calle Real, adjoining my office, so convenient to be posted and to share Goleta news with the reporters.

I also remember when David Novis was owner-editor of the Goleta paper. It was always an uphill battle for him but he gave it his all. That is what newspaper reporting is about.

It is not surprising that when readers and advertisers made the connection of ownership that the ads fell off.

Like she is really going to restructure and make it better. Who believes this?Does she really have a focus?

Is this now what they mean by "tighter and brighter" reporting, initially boasted by News-Less flacks in August 2007?

Such horrible timing to let 17 employees go three weeks before Christmas!

What are you saying, binky? "mystikrich" works for the News-Press? You mean someone who can't spell "layed off" is in the newspaper industry! Why am I not surprised by this? Well, the local bastion of news and illiteracy can't tank fast enough to suit me.

Sorry to all who lost their jobs, but I suspect you'll all be moving on to better spots elsewhere in the community. Let the dummies keep their paper. Maybe the number of subscribers will drop so low that Wendy & Co. could just phone them once a week with the news. That would really cut down on their costs.

Were it not for the amazing News-Press building itself, I suspect Wendy and von Whatever would deep-six the newspaper and be outta here. It has proved tiresome, but that building is a landmark. Perhaps another billionaire or near-billionaire will buy the building.

If the print media is dead, why is the Indy so vital? Not to mention the Santa Maria Times and sisters. The Daily Nexus has had some good stuff too.

Jim Logan and Martha Lannan are dedicated and talented professionals who have done a terrific job covering Goleta news. It is my sincere hope that the Indy, our one and only source for timely, accurate and important local news, will snap them up a.s.a.p.!!

Hold your heads high, Jim and Martha, this is not about you!!

I wonder if Wendy/Arthur tried to shop around the GVV before just wholesale shutting it down. In a time where local news is becoming more important in newspapers, a community paper like that, along with a solid Web site, could have good prospects given the right management.

I enjoyed getting local news via the GVV on Friday. I knew Wendy had bought it, but also knew that she largely kept her hands off (which is probably why there was still some news in it.) The only thing of value in the SBNP (and why I still guiltily subscribe Friday-Sunday) is the local ads. If another paper could take over the local and Sunday ads and give us a daily alternative, I'd switch in a second. Unfortunately, if it's not a 'home delivery' daily paper, the chances of local businesses advertising, or larger businesses paying for Sunday inserts, is slim to none. I keep hoping W&A will get bored and give up, or for a clever coup, or for a richer savior though...

It's a sad day for Goleta when we lose not just the Voice, but the wonderful and professional journalists led by Jim Logan, who kept the Voice alive.

We wish Logan, Lannen, Cooper and all the rest a wonderful new adventure as they move on, leaving Wendy mired in the ashes from the conflagration she cannot or will not put out.

"What the Independent fails to mention is [an example showing that] Times are indeed hard for print media, regardless."

They came right out and said "all this trouble has been magnified by the nationwide newspaper industry slump". Sheesh.

Although the mighty Ampersand newspaper publishing empire continues to shrink and has become almost completely irrelevant to the daily lives of the citizens of Santa Barbara County, fearless publishers Wendy McCaw and Arthur Wisenburger will crusade on! They must, you see, because THEY are right and everyone else is hopelessly confused about what a REAL newspaper should be about.

Their critics are wrong! The community is wrong! The mayor and city council are wrong! The journalists and American newspaper publishing community are wrong!

Wendy and Arthur will carry on publishing and printing their newspaper until the bitter end, even if it means printing only a single copy and hand delivering it to the sole remaining subscriber. Their dedication to the sacred mission of producing a lovingly crafted daily cry for help is beyond reproach.

Know this Santa Barbarans and People of Earth: Wendy and Arthur will triumph! One fine day, perhaps in the not too distant future, they will be recognized for the visionaries that they are and will be honored and respected for having re-invented American journalism.

Besides paying big bucks for top named attornies, Wendy also shells out monthly cash to keep the Number 1 spin doctor in the USA and master of P.R, Michael Sitrick of Sitrick and Company, to work on her image all the way down to internet blogs and responding to any articles that seem to counter her reputation as a leading business person in the community . Sitrick and Company surfs online and is quite internet savvy. I am surprised no one caught on immediately to the "my stik rich "id and Sitrick representation of Wendy and company.

I'm sure there are plenty of ex newspress employees submitting their negative posts to anything Wendy, so its only fair she has a paid P.R. person at the ready to run to her defense.

Besides, from the quotes of Jim Logan and two others that were laid off, it was obvious they disliked working for the Newspress and owners. The parting shots from them showed a lack of class. Why would any future employer want to add these malcontents to their roster? Logan may be witty with the blurb about the buck from Jesus remark, but it reveals his lack of loyalty. Even Trader Joe's has standards. He may find immediate employment an elusive task.

So she's paying big bucks to a big PR firm to doctor her image by posting idiotic and misspelled comments in her defense???

Hoo hoo. This just keeps getting better. Way to burn through all that excess cash, Wendy, hon. Your public image is in the crapper and you're paying someone to help put it there!!

BTW, I wouldn't be deterred from hiring any former employees who spoke out against the News-Press. All the locals know management has treated their employees like crap and dismantled a once fine and reputable paper.

Wendy's problems go beyond financial & image. It's all about control & how to keep it & God forbid ANYONE should stand in the way of that.
Couple that w/ a tinge bof social retardation & secelusion from the reality of things & you have, yes, Wendy McC!
This area has seen a major publication go down the sewer, many skilled employees "invited to leave" & now another fun publication go down as well.
Where does it stop? I'd ask Wendy & Von Whoever, but their heads are buried in the beach sand behind their estate.
Keep in mind people, you're talking about a person that tried to claim the beach behind her estate was private property, clearly against the California Coastal Comission Act of 1973 (I believe). Can you say "above the law?"
These are folks out of touch w/ the real so why should they deal w/ it like normal folks?
It's great to live in fantasyland, but eventually the walls will come tumbling down :) henry

The mis-spelling of words is intentional to give it the feel of Joe Average guy. Its no average joe writing those retorts. Not only to the Indy articles but to Blogabarbara and other media outlets, they ( sitrick and company) troll a wide net. There is a long track record of Wendy and Company using the services of Sitrick. And why not? He and his company are the very best, and she will pay big money for lawyers and PR guys. I would want the very best if I couold afford it.

Speaking out against an employer or company is anyone's right. I just think its classless to take a paycheck and benefits year after year, then trash your employer on the way out the door, no matter what the circumstances.

If it truly was such a great weekly, then there would be advertising support. The Newspress still manages to fill their pages with plenty of full page spreads from local car dealers. If people werent buying cars due to the ads, they would drop the expense, especially right now. Blaiming everything on Wendy is getting a little old to the locals who have lived through the enitre process. Everyone has their pluses and minuses, and its only fair to point out that Wendy has poured money into countless non profits and other great improvements that benefit our community. Visit the SB Bowl for a concert, and its pretty obvious she has had a positive impact on this community.

Its hard to be a high profile person in SB and not attract detractors. But there are two sides to everything. Nice that there are forums like this to converse about it.

Well, of course I disagree. I never tire of "blaiming everything on Wendy." It's easy and fun, and no matter how much money she pours into SB non-profits to get a tax break as well as to clear up her own negative image, she can't buy a dime's worth of good will in this town.

She's had an overwhelmingly negative impact on the paper which will only clear up when she leaves town. Don't want her paper, don't want Little Lady Bountiful's charity - just want to wave bye to her moving van as it pulls away.

I wouldn't trust that woman as far as I could throw her. If the News Press prints "The sky is blue," I'm gonna run to the window and check for myself. That's how little journalistic credibility the paper has under her reign of terror.

I'm local. I'm not trolling for anybody. "Fairness" to Her Majesty is not one of my priorities. I've witnessed the whole disgusting mess from the beginning and I just hope it ends in my lifetime.

I just don't understand why they kept Mr.. Armstrong? Oh yeah, and Mr.. BFA, thinking it is classless getting a pay check and benefits, then trashing...... at $350 an hour I bet you do! Mean while many try to survive in this town with legitimate employment which is dwindling. I am sure SHE is quite bitter so a severance is probably not in her vocabulary, unfortunately before the holidays, it will only further the Ebenezer Scrooge analogies, but here is my pitch: If we do not all start getting industry going, and continue letting legitimate jobs go by the way side, this predatory, service oriented, short on ethics economy is only going to get worse than it already is. UCSB to the rescue? Internal investment with internal rewards? I wish I could get more out of these colleges than some good football games.

It is unfortunate for writers that the net has really taken place of much of the print, but that is what is happening. Environmentally, is it saving trees? or wasting electrons? Not sure. But certainly making it more brutal to work at a news paper than it already is.

Excuse me, I need to go take my ADD pill now.

I'll miss the GVV. They did a great job with their stories and should feel proud of their work all these years.

AShaw:"Maybe Wendy should ask for a government bail out"
HAHAHAHA! That was a good 1, made me smile big :) henry

On behalf of Brooks Institute we would just like to thank Martha Lannan and Lara Cooper for all their support of our school in the media. We appreciate your dedication to our community.

Thank you,
Bethany Innocenti
Manager, Media Relations
Brooks Institute

I'm rather baffled how there are daily reports in the press about continual layoffs throughout the newspaper industry, yet Mrs. McCaw's decision to streamline her newspaper is greeted like the holocaust. Papers are closing, being sold, staff are being laid off by the thousands, yet the Santa Barbara News-Press is supposed to keep a full staff even as a handful of vindictive people and the union work diligently at losing the newspaper ads and subscribers. I have never seen such a vindictive and calculated attack on an organization as I see coming from The Independent (which might have less-than-altruistic motives --- namely killing off it chief competitor); the Union, which is doing its part to strong arm the New-Press to the mat (oh, by the way, the UAW is finally relenting some of its bloodsucking tactics to the auto industry to try to keep them in business, after helping to bankrupt them) ; and then there are the unemployed makers of "Citizen McCaw" who are also waging their video vendetta for purely inspirational, non-profit, and non-egotistical reasons (Hey, is that $25 DVD still for sale?); and not to mention the blogging of one overweight ambulance chaser who doesnt have the guts to let people post replies to his mudslinging. And, in the face of all these obstacles, amid the worst economic downturn the nation has ever seen, Mrs. McCaw lays off a small portion of her staff to try and turn her business around. Oh my God, what a hard-hearted, evil, calculating thing to do! I believe these last 17 people laid off have the union and these vindictive types to blame for losing their jobs, not Mrs. McCaw.

More bullcrap. If the "one who must not be named" were really going through hard times, she'd be laying off attorneys and PR flacks to save a ton of money. No matter how hard times get, there's always big bucks to put lipstick on a pig.

Sorry for the people who've lost their jobs, but happy to see her papers fail. She brought this all on herself.

Let's see. How much money has Wendy McCaw spent trying to overturn the legitimate election by her own employees for union representation? And how much has she spent trying to silence the free speech she doesn't agree with. What efforts has she made to improve the paper?

And where was the News-Press when the community needed it the most -- during three major fires in the past 1 1/2 years? It was behind a pay wall. Readers turned to other media -- print as well as online, to get the news they needed.

Mrs. McCaw is her own worst enemy.

Johnsmyth, I'm as opposed to unions as the next true blue collar guy (well, what they represent THESE days anyways). But the truth to the matter is in the way many folks were "invited to leave" from the SBNP.
There was an article I was working on for the Daily Nexus a while back titled after a song by Poe called Angry Johnny where the chorus said the following: You can't talk to a psycho like a normal human being.
Now, I'm not implying that Ms. McC is psycho because I may get sued, but 1 has to wonder about some of the behavior & outcome of decisions.
True, the SBNP as well as a few others are hers to do as she pleases, but what's done is what draws public attention.
Even the most cynical has to agree, it ain't behavior consistent w/, well, "normal" business behavior.
But then again, somebody PLEASE define normal :) henry

This NP thing is getting to be a big zzzzzzzzzz, move on, it's over...

Perhaps the Voice would thrive if it were outsourced to India as Mackpherson has done with his small Pasadena local gossip paper Now? The "news" is about two days late but I guess that does not matter..........

Lordledbetter:"This NP thing is getting to be a big zzzzzzzzzz, move on, it's over..."
Ain't that the truth! But some want to beat it to the ground. Nothing like flogging a dead horse & that horse done died a while ago :) henry

The Indy doesn't seem to be laying people off.

The Santa Maria Times doesn't seem to be laying people off.

There is a real need for local reporting around here... solid reporting on all the commissions, boards, special districts, and localities around here, not to mention UCSB's vast plans for expansion, reporting based on deep knowledge and expertise, would be profitable.

But that reporting does have to be marketed and sold well, and there needs to be a solid business model.

The Indy and SMT seem to do OK, but the News-Press, if run well, given its incredible starting advantage (building, name recognition, etc) should wipe them out!

That McCaw has failed to score given she started on third base underscores her incompetence.

7dolphins, the SBNP didn't lay people of. Theyw ere "invited to leave" (wink, wink) :) henry

Are we talking about the same newspaper? Let's get real here, folks. I've been in SB since 1975 and the SBNP has never been more than a second rate paper. I used to cringe every time I walked past the building and saw the NY Times name on the wall. Wendy may have made it worse, but they were already approaching bottom.
Stop flattening this cat and let it die out.
Maybe someone will start another daily. Like the Daily Sound?

Carp, Daily Sound has been an awesome read since it came out. Free too! It's got a small town paper feel, but actually can have a bit of content to it. They just need to work on consistency :) henry

Excooooze me...employees at the Valley Voice, downtown and at the printing plant were not "laid off" last month, they were "elimnated."

Excooooze me...employees at the Valley Voice, downtown and at the printing plant were not "laid off" last month, they were "elimnated."

and p.s. mr. bfa - the managing editor and 2 writers at the Voice were the absolute opposite of "classless"...it's clear you were not familiar with the paper, how far it had come in the past 3 years and how valued it was by thousands before its wendy-imposed demise.