Bankrupt ‘Santa Barbara News-Press’ Still Billing Subscribers
Defunct Daily Reportedly Deducts $120 from Elderly Noleta Woman’s Bank Account
The defunct Santa Barbara News-Press is continuing to bill subscribers, according to one octogenarian in Noleta. Her friend, Sandy Shertzer, contacted the Independent to spread the word, saying his “Noleta grandma buddy” had $120 automatically deducted from her bank account on September 9, seven weeks after the newspaper announced its July 21 bankruptcy.
Shertzer said his friend, who is 87 years old and asked that her named not be used, had received the paper at her door until October 2022, when the News-Press stopped home deliveries and began delivering through the U.S. mail. She said that “forewarned is forearmed” in letting others know of the subscription charge that might still be coming from Ampersand Publishing.
Calling himself “an over-educated kid from the Bronx High School of Science” with a background in the law, Shertzer accompanied his friend to the bank, which canceled the automatic payments and returned her money.
The bankruptcy Trustee Jerry Namba did not return messages asking for information on the position subscribers are in who’ve been billed by the bankrupt paper. In a creditors meeting on September 7, News-Press owner and publisher Wendy McCaw was unable to answer questions about subscriptions, instead deferring to ex-employees, who her attorneys said they had not been able to reach and who are still owed their last paychecks.
