‘Santa Barbara News Press’ owner found in contempt

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – A contempt hearing in the bankruptcy case involving News Press owner Wendy McCaw was continued in May.

This month a U.S. Magistrate found McCaw's Ampersand Publishing Company in contempt in a 71 page report.

The contempt finding is linked to unfair labor practice accusations.

The owner of the Santa Barbara News Press filed for bankruptcy in July 2023.

Former News-Press senior writer Melinda Burns said maybe McCaw can be held accountable.

"This ruling is way overdue. McCaw is a lawbreaker and it's time the courts put a stop to her evasive behavior. For 18 years, ever since we voted to join the Teamsters back in the summer of 2006 McCaw has thumbed her nose at Federal labor law and mistreated her newsroom employees with apparent impunity. She has yet to make good on more than $3.5 million she was ordered to pay my former colleagues in 2017 in recompense for bad faith bargaining and retaliating against union supporters." said Burns", I hope the court will demand some meaningful additional compensation for my former colleagues and the union and finally bring this scandal to an end. We never got a union contract at the News-Press, and now there is no News-Press. But maybe McCaw can finally be made to obey the law."

Attorneys for Ampersand and the National Labor Relations Board have been finger-pointing over access to the historic two-story newspaper building near Santa Barbara City Hall off Anacapa St. and a printing facility in Goleta.

A judge had asked attorneys to work out an arrangement to safely access the buildings.

The contents of the building are slated to go up for auction.

They could be valued in the $200,000 range.

The building is worth much more, but it is not considered part of the publishing company's assets.

Newspaper readers noticed trouble at the paper when McCaw bought it and started getting involved in editorial decisions involving Rob Lowe and other high profile people in the community.

She also got involved when reporters worked on stories about removing non-native animals from the Channel Islands National Park off the coast.

The billionaire didn't want animals, including rodents, killed.

One court case ruled that she could do what she wanted editorially since she owned the paper.

The story ended up in Vanity Fair and became the basis of the documentary "Citizen McCaw."

In 2006, newspaper staff unionized and rallied with tape covering their mouths in De La Guerra Plaza.

The civil contempt finding is related to unfair and bad-faith bargaining.

Some of the paper's former employees chose not to comment.

Journalist and author Ann Louise Bardach who talks about journalism in the Citizen McCaw documentary said McCaw is in no hurry to pay.

"Wendy McCaw's mantra seems to be Vengeance is Mine...so I would guess she'll throw a slice of her fortune at lawyers to try to delay having to pay up. It seems to have worked for her," said Bardach, " First Amendment stuff and freedom of the press would likely not be pressing issues for her."

Some employes have been waiting for their final paychecks, other never received raises and compensation the union had fought for.

Longtime readers including Gloria Peyrat have turned to the Santa Barbara Independent for their printed news.

Peyrat said she missed the articles, the coverage of local schools and the comics.

They miss the 150 year old paper that stopped publishing and declared bankruptcy.

Before McCaw bought the paper it had won a Pulitzer and was a paper journalists like to have on their resumes.

The National Labor Relations Board is now tasked with submitting recoverable costs.

Ampersand will have to move through bankruptcy before anyone gets paid.

The "Citizen McCaw "film is online at https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=citizen+mccaw#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:396eb20d,vid:hXb53q_kDfc,st:0