After a bit of a hiatus, we’re back with another Santa Barbara Media Blog, rounding up the latest and greatest in Santa Barbara news news.

The first item comes to us from Edhat, which got a letter from Barbara Lanz-Mateo, former editor of Coastal Woman Magazine, and now former editor of the Santa Ynez Valley Journal. Lanz-Mateo said she was fired from the Journal by wealthy publisher Nancy-Crawford-Hall, who also happens to own one of the biggest ranchers in Santa Barbara County and pretty much self-funded Steve Pappas’s 2008 run for the 3rd District Supervisorial seat.

Said Lanz-Mateo, in what Edhat described as a letter to friends: “I was fired today by the publisher. That’s three editors in three years for them. Good luck to the next one. He or she will need all the luck they can get.”

With Lanz-Mateo, Journal readers were beginning to get a healthy dose of news and information in the weekly newspaper—but were still treated to Crawford-Hall’s editorials, which aren’t always the most put together pieces we’ve ever read. It seems half the editorials are spent talking about her horses, while the other half are just ranting.

Speaking of pleasant publishers to work for, the Santa Barbara News-Press is hiring for a part-time position.

And speaking of pleasant publishers who are hiring and also have one of the biggest divorce settlements of all time, Wendy McCaw beats out Michael Jordan, Harrison Ford, and Madonna on this top-15 list.

And speaking of pleasant publishers who are hiring and have one of the biggest divorce settlements of all time, Barney Brantingham reported in his column this week that a $30 fruit basket sent by the Teamsters to the newsroom over the holidays was deemed “trespass” by newspaper management.

The San Jose Mercury News posits that 2009 was a ”mild year for California wildfires. Tell that to Santa Barbarans who experienced the Jesusita Fire, the most devastating fire to hit the town, well, since the previous year’s Tea Fire.

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