Santa Ynez Valley Journal Seeks Status

A couple weeks ago I received a comment in response to the “Valley Journal Letter Libelous?” post of Oct 1 of last year.

The comment is as follows:

“Nancy has petitioned the county to ascertain the status of a newspaper of general circulation. The public can oppose this by writing a deposition in support of the oppositions and forwarding it to either Sam Cohen Atty or to the Publisher at the Santa Maria Times. Both of those entities have filed oppositions to Nancy's petition and the next hearing for the matter is Feb 13, 2008. They could fill you in on how to submit your deposition and make your voice heard. We all know that Mrs. Crawford-Hall's paper is not a paper of General Circ nor deserving of such a status or monetary benefits of such. Her only purpose in owning the paper is to target the local tribe.”

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The VJ is seeking this status so that it will be able to run legal notices which would help support it financially, and allow it to compete with the Santa Maria Times and Santa Barbara News press for pricing.

A little digging revealed the following.

Section 6040 of the California code states that:
“Whenever any official advertising, notice, resolution, order, or other matter of any nature whatsoever is required by law to be published in a newspaper, such publication shall be made only in a newspaper of general circulation”

The unprofessional nature of the VJ surfaces again. The VJ (or in reality, NCH) had placed the notice of petition of her efforts to become a paper of general circulation status in her own paper (a paper that is not a “newspaper of general circulation”) and ran it for about a month. Most legitimate publications have lawyers to handle this stuff.

NCH went before the judge about 3 weeks ago where all of this came to light and he recommended that NCH start the process from the beginning because she did not follow legal procedure. She was unable to prove that she published a notice in a local "newspaper of general circ" and she was unable to prove that she had a bone-fide paid subscriber base.

At that hearing I believe NCH was a bit surprised that there were individuals as well as the Santa Maria Times and the Chumash who had filed letters of opposition against her petition.

The VJ is claiming that they have 52 subscribers (donations from POLO / POSY / NOMORESLOTS etc ?? ) and that that should be enough to warrant the status of a paper of general circulation.

California Government Code Section 6000 states:

A "newspaper of general circulation" is a newspaper published for the dissemination of local or telegraphic news and intelligence of a general character, which has a bona fide subscription list of paying subscribers, and has been established, printed and published at regular intervals in the State, county, or city where publication, notice by publication, or official advertising is to be given or made for at least one year preceding the date of the publication, notice or advertisement.

Section 6008 – (b) states: “It has a substantial distribution to paid subscribers in the city, district, or judicial district in which it is seeking adjudication”

I get this paper free every week as do 99.9% of the homes and businesses in the valley.

That is so far from having a bona fide substantial subscription list.

As it is, I have a real problem with the VJ and NCH as stated in the post of Oct 1.

An owner of a paper that allows the publication of personal attacks on someone, using anonymous sources, has no business being in the industry.

NCH has admittedly stated that she started looking into buying a paper after years of the other local papers refusing to print anything critical about the tribe or the casino--even in their "letters to the editor" sections. NCH has said the Journal is going to keep after the Chumash.

Great... a paper basically dedicated to one cause - opposing the Chumash on every level of thier existence. Does the VJ qualify or deserve to be raised to the level of a paper of general circulation? I think not.

Anyway, those wishing to attend the next hearing may do so on Feb 13 at 8:30 AM in Santa Maria at 312-C East Cook Street. Judge Timothy J. Staffel will be presiding in the SM1 Courtroom. The case number is 1250309

I believe there will be adversarial proceedings following the initial hearing for those opposing the petition.

All of this information is available at the Superior Court of California - Santa Barbara County website at:

http://www.sbcourts.org/pubcal/CIVIL.php