Santa Barbara News-Press Autopsy Results: Death by Spite

DEATH BY 1,000 CUTS: Early this Sunday afternoon, I was endeavoring to take a fresh photograph of the Santa Barbara News-Press building in De la Guerra Plaza — a still-life of a dead newspaper — when I heard the sirens. The first to arrive was a big red city fire engine. Approximately 23 seconds later, an AMR ambulance arrived in hot pursuit. Both parked as close to the historic News-Press building as possible. Word had just leaked that Wendy P. McCaw, embattled owner of the News-Press, had just pulled the plug on Santa Barbara’s oldest paper — and one of the oldest in California — thus bringing to merciful conclusion the loudest and most self-inflicted death rattle in journalistic history. 

Were the paramedics on hand to save the News-Press from McCaw? No, it turns out a homeless man had either fallen off his bicycle or was being rescued from a drug overdose. A longtime owner of a nearby business was walking by and asked what was up. I explained McCaw had just declared bankruptcy. “Finally!” she exclaimed. 

I didn’t ask, but she could have been one of the many business owners who, in 2006, received letters from McCaw’s lawyer threatening to sue them if they didn’t take down a sign reading, “McCaw, Obey the Law.” These had sprouted up all over town when the paper was engulfed by internal strife from which it never recovered.