Two weeks ago, Long Beach community activists Kathy Ryan and Tom Stout launched LONGBEACHTAXPAYERS.ORG, a new website providing analysis and information about the city budget, government and policy decisions.
A month ago, Ryan Smolar and Rachel Potucek, creators of University by the Sea, launched LIMELIGHTLB.COM, a new city-wide events calendar for the city of Long Beach. It is comprehensive, easy to use and the best online calendar in the city.
Just within the last few years, the lbpost.com, Long Beach Magazine, and the District Weekly have also launched.
With the District, Long Beach has gained an independent weekly that has become an important read for not only the growing arts and creative class, but for city hall watchdogs and insiders. The District Weekly also hosts an interactive and extensive website at THEDISTRICTWEEKLY.COM.
Long Beach magazine, led by publisher Mark Stevens and editor AJ Yager, is a monthly glossy publication that includes everything from restaurant reviews to profiles of community and business leaders. The popular magazine has evolved in its fourth year and continues to improve with every issue.
At the lbpost.com, we have tried to give a voice and platform to a diverse group of community activists, business people and politicos. We continue to grow because of new readers and the support of community partners.
What we are witnessing is a new media era in Long Beach. I have always beleived that the more media – the better. Independent media sources provide alternatives to the Press-Telegram and the Gazette.
Readers can now visit multiple sources and gain information and perspective from various points of view and people.
The new media era in Long Beach really began 8 years ago when Bill Pearl started LBREPORT.com. For almost a decade, Bill has been producing hard-hitting and breaking news, investigative reporting, and commentary.
LBREPORT.com opened the door to independent media organizations like the Districty Weekly and the lbpost.com.
I was recently discussing all the changes with limelightlb.com creator Ryan Smolar. He sent me this extensive media timeline that he wrote and has been working on. I asked him if I could publish it and he agreed.
It is not a perfect or complete history, but a substantial review of important media milestones.
MEDIA TIMELINE & HISTORY
The history of Long Beach news dates back to 1881 with the founding of the Los Angeles Times and local publications like The Eye, The Long Beach Journal, The Long Beach Breaker, Long Beach Press (1902), Evening Tribune (1900) and The Daily Telegram (1904).
By the 1920s, The Daily Telegram, Long Beach Press and Evening Tribune had emerged as the major publications in town and they were further aggregated in 1924 to form the Press-Telegram by Long Beach’s first media mogul, William F. Prisk.
In 1926, the ability to add engravings and photographs was introduced at the Press-Telegram to add value to their Sunday advertising section. Eight color comics were introduced shortly after in 1928.
In 1944, the Press-Telegram group merged with its only competitor, The Long Beach Sun. Later in 1952, The Press-Telegram and another competitor, The Long Beach Independent were acquired by news mavericks, the Ridder family.
Despite the Press-Telegram’s absorption into a large media company, Dan Ridder personally ran the Press-Telegram for many years during and even after the Ridder family merged holdings with the Knight newspaper group.
In 1971, local cartoonist Phil Yeh started Uncle Jam, Long Beach’s largest and longest running counterculture newspaper. The weekly was headquartered at the Cornerstone Gallery on 4th Street’s Retro Row until 1991 when Yeh moved to Santa Barbara County.
In 1974, the Knight and Ridder newspaper chains merged, placing the Press-Telegram under the new Knight-Ridder newspaper family. At one time, the Knight-Ridder company was the largest publisher of newspapers in the world.
In 1978, the Grunion Gazette was launched as a small weekly newspaper for the Belmont Shore neighborhood.
1981 was a big year in the development of Long Beach’s second-tier newspapers as local entrepreneurs John and Fran Blowitz purchased the Grunion Gazette. The Blowitz expanded the Grunion’s coverage to the entire east-side of Long Beach and they launched the less successful Downtown Gazette.
In 1988 came the introduction of the bi-weekly Long Beach Business Journal by South Coast Publishing Inc. owned by former head of the Chamber of Commerce, George Economides.
In 1996, the Press-Telegram launched its website.
In 1997, MediaNews Group, one of the largest newspaper companies in the United States, purchased the Daily News and the Press-Telegram, fired all employees and re-hired them at a substantial pay decrease under its Los Angeles subset, the Los Angeles News Group.
In 1998, full-color and digital presses were introduced to the Press-Telegram.
In 1999, MediaNews Group purchased 10 more California Newspapers from the Donrey Group and also acquired an online web classified network service to use across all his papers.
In January, 2000, the Press-Telegram lost long-time star Bill Hillberg to the Los Angeles Newspaper Group’s Washington Bureau.
In 2001, public relations firm Beeler & Associates bought the Los Altos Neighbor and re-launched the free bi-weekly publication, The Beachcomber, to service Long Beach’s east side.
In 2001, local activist/news radio journalist, Bill Pearl created LBReport.com, the first all online Long Beach news source.
In April 2003, MediaNews Group purchased LA.com, the internet-entertainment site that would eventually replace the Calendar sections of 9 Los Angeles-based newspapers.
In 2004, the Grunion and Downtown Gazettes were sold by the Blowitzes to MediaNews Group. Unlike the Press-Telegram, the Gazettes remained independent from the integration that has merged operations at some of MediaNews Group’s daily newspapers.
Also in 2004, Mark Stevens was appointed Publisher of the Press-Telegram. South Coast Publishing Inc. (owners of the Business Journal) launched Destinations Magazine, a monthly publication geared towards the tourist and entertainment industry.
In 2005, MediaNews Group made a marketing-partnership with Yahoo! HotJobs to consolidate their delivery of business news and job listings.
In 2005, A.J. Jager and two partners launched the upscale, life-style magazine, Long Beach Magazine. The magazine is now owned by John Molina, and Mark Stevens, formerly of the PT, is now the publisher.
IN 2006 The Press-Telegram building was sold for $20 million to OctoberFIVEdevelopment and the newspaper moved to 42,000 sq.ft. of Class A office space in Arco Center.
The Press-Telegram spent $250,000 with Laserfische (a local OCR specialist) to scan and character-recognize their entire archive in 2006.
In January 2007, Will Swaim, Publisher of the O.C. Weekly left the Weekly, taking along much of the staff he had assembled over 12 years (including Commie Girl, Ellen Griley, Theo Douglas, Steve Lowery, Chris Ziegler and Dave Wielenga) and started the District Weekly in Long Beach.
On February 13, 2007, the lbpost.com was launched by partners Robert Garcia and Shaun Lumachi.
On February 29, 2008, the Press-Telegram announced it would be merging some operations with its sister-paper, The Daily Breeze.