Our ownership history
2007 – Founding
The Long Beach Post was founded on February 13, 2007 by Shaun Lumachi and Robert Garcia. At the time, Lumachi worked as a public policy consultant for area chambers of commerce, including the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, and Garcia worked as an educator, teaching public policy and communications at University of Southern California, California State University Long Beach, and Long Beach City College.
2008 – Robert Garcia announces run for City Council
During his 2008 city council campaign, Garcia recused himself from participating in any editorial or business decisions related to the Post. At that time Shaun Lumachi became the sole publisher and decision maker on all editorial and business decisions.
2009 – Robert Garcia elected to Long Beach City Council
In 2009, Garcia was elected to the Long Beach City Council during a special election to fill the First District seat vacated by Bonnie Lowenthal. At that time, all of Garcia’s investments and assets relating to Long Beach Post, Inc., were placed in a blind trust where he had no knowledge of the holdings of the trust and no right to intervene in its handling.
2011 – Death of Shaun Lumachi
On December 3, 2011, Shaun Lumachi was killed in an automobile accident in Florida. His stake in the Long Beach Post passed to his widow, Deziré Lumachi. On December 20 of the same year, Deziré was named Interim Publisher of the Long Beach Post.
2013 – Cindy Allen becomes a partner at the Long Beach Post
In 2013, local business owner and former Long Beach police officer Cindy Allen became a partner in the Long Beach Post, Inc. She was soon after named Publisher, and was solely responsible for all business and editorial decisions at the Long Beach Post; though they maintained their ownership stake in the Post for a short time after, neither Deziré Lumachi nor Robert Garcia participated in any further business or editorial decision making.
2013 – Robert Garcia announces run for mayor; Cindy Allen becomes sole owner
Later that year, co-founder Robert Garcia announced his bid to run for mayor of Long Beach. At that time Deziré Lumachi and Robert Garcia sold their remaining stake in the Long Beach Post to Cindy Allen, Long Beach Post, Inc. was dissolved and the Long Beach Post was fully moved under the ownership of Allen’s agency, ETA Advertising.
A large portion of ETA Advertising’s core business as an advertising agency involved contracts with the city of Long Beach and related departments such as the Water Department, Long Beach Airport, and the Port of Long Beach. The agency also provided its services to political campaigns and measures. ETA Advertising, acting as media buyer, would often place advertisements for these campaigns in the Long Beach Post. However, ETA Advertising’s business dealings were always kept separate from the Long Beach Post’s editorial process.
Once the sale of the Long Beach Post to ETA Advertising was finalized, neither Deziré Lumachi nor Robert Garcia had any further ownership, financial stake or involvement whatsoever in the Long Beach Post. Robert Garcia would go on to win the election for Long Beach Mayor in 2014.
2018 – John Molina / Pacific6 purchase of the Long Beach Post
In June 2018, local businessman John Molina and the Pacific6 community investment partnership purchased the Long Beach Post from Cindy Allen, under a newly-formed company, Pacific Community Media. Once the sale was finalized, Cindy Allen had no further ownership, financial stake or involvement whatsoever in the Long Beach Post.
2019 – Cindy Allen announces run for City Council
On October 14, 2019, Cindy Allen announced her bid to run for City Council in the 2nd District.
2020 – Cindy Allen wins second district City Council race
Allen went on to win the 2nd District City Council seat during the November 2020 general election. She was sworn in on Tuesday, December 15.
Current Ownership
The Long Beach Post is now wholly owned by Pacific6 and operated by the newly formed company, Pacific Community Media LLC, a subsidiary of Pacific6 Enterprises.
Brought together by John Molina, formerly the Chief Financial Officer of Molina Healthcare, Pacific6 is a Long Beach-based community investment partnership comprising six co-founders.
Pacific6’s purchase of the Post in June 2018 allowed the media organization to continue expanding coverage of our city and its people, quadrupling its editorial and business staff, to become the largest media organization in the city of Long Beach.
Though Pacific6 helps to guide financial sustainability and strategic vision for Pacific Community Media, the company does not have a say in news and editorial decisions or coverage.
The integrity of the Post is paramount, and our ethical framework provides the necessary separation to maintain the public’s trust. To that end, Pacific6 and the Long Beach Post have constructed an ethics wall, with Pacific Community Media LLC.
As a local business owner, philanthropist and community investor, John Molina has financial, political and personal investments that intersect with the Long Beach Post’s work covering the city. While our ethics wall prevents these conflicts of interest from in any way affecting or influencing our coverage, we maintain a policy of disclosing these conflicts of interest when they are pertinent to a given story.