Santa Barbara Independent  Displays 40 Years of Coverage at the Library

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - For four decades the Santa Barbara Independent has been publishing the news of Santa Barbara, and now you can reflect back on some of the most iconic covers ever to hit the racks.

A special display is up and filling the walls at the Santa Barbara Library's Faulkner gallery.

 It was a lengthy effort to decide which covers were going to be in the presentation considering there were more than 2000 editions.

At a special reception, the staff of reporters and editors along with photographers and art directors were all acknowledged for their enterprising and creative work since 1986.

Santa Barbara Independent Editor in Chief Marianne Partridge said, "this whole great big long Independent family has been putting together the Independent for 40 years andGod be praised it will be another 40!"

Around the room she said, "If you look through all of this you will see  our reporters have been covering  oil, immigration  the arts....so much."

The staff says the covers and the content have documented the history of Santa Barbara for the last 40 years.

Every print issue has gone out weekly the entire time without missing  a deadline, even during the pandemic.

Some of the covers feature the areas many fires, the Refugio Oil Spill, and the Montecito Debris Flow. The paper has also compiled years of Santa Barbara International Film Festival issues and annually it puts Old Spanish Days in the highlighted position.

There are also covers with noted faces in town including politicians and entertainers.

The exhibit at the library will run through May.