Marianne Partridge and Joe Cole
Paul Wellman

In what felt like a never-ending battle over ownership of The Santa Barbara Independent, the paper’s angel has long been Joe Cole. When the smoke finally cleared, Cole emerged as The Indy‘s new publisher, seen here examining the product alongside Editor in Chief Marianne Partridge. Cole’s held an interest in newspapers since his college days, when he entered USC as a journalism major but rapidly saw the light and switched to finance and then went to UC Hastings for a law degree. During his 32 years in S.B., he’s mixed a love of music (plays a jazzy bass guitar) and words (past president and publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press) with the law (current solo real estate and corporate practice). “I’m pretty excited,” he said of adding The Indy to his repertoire. “I love the community; I love the paper.”

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