''The Press Democrat'', with the largest circulation in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

's North Bay, is a daily

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

published in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa ( Spanish for " Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and ...

History

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The newspaper was founded in 1897 by Ernest L. Finley who merged his ''Evening Press'' and Thomas Thompson's ''Sonoma Democrat'' (originally created as a voice for the Democratic Party). Finley also bought the ''Santa Rosa Republican'' in 1927 and merged it with the ''Press Democrat'' in 1948. Ernest L. Finley, his wife Ruth, daughter Ruth, and son-in-law Evert Person owned and published the "PD" between 1897 and 1985. Evert and Ruth Finley Person sold the paper to

The New York Times Company The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City. History The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. ...

in 1985. The most popular feature in the newspaper for many years was Gaye LeBaron's community column, according to a readership survey. LeBaron produced more than 8,000 columns between 1961 and her semi-retirement in 2001, writing on

human interest In journalism, a human-interest story is a feature story that discusses people or pets in an emotional way. It presents people and their problems, concerns, or achievements in a way that brings about interest, sympathy or motivation in the reade ...

, cultural events, ethnic history and local politics. ''The Press Democrat'' is now owned by Sonoma Media Investments, LLC after it was purchased from Halifax Media Group. The New York Times Company bought the paper from the Finley family in 1985, as well as the ''North Bay Business Journal'' and the ''Petaluma Argus-Courier'', which were also acquired by the Halifax Media Holdings LLC. Halifax resold its California papers at the end of 2012 to a local ownership group that includes

Douglas H. Bosco Douglas Harry Bosco (born July 28, 1946) is an American lawyer, politician, and newspaper owner from California. He is a former U.S. Representative, serving in Congress as a Democrat from 1983 to 1991. Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York ...

and Jean Schulz, the widow of ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ''Peanuts'' is among the most popular and inf ...

'' comic strip creator Charles M. Schulz. In 2019, Sonoma Media Investments acquired the ''Sonoma County Gazette'' of Forestville, a monthly newspaper.

Awards and honors

''The Press Democrat''s staff was the winner of the

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting is a Pulitzer Prize awarded for a distinguished example of breaking news, local reporting on news of the moment. It has been awarded since 1953 under several names: *From 1953 to 1963: Pulitzer Priz ...

for " r lucid and tenacious coverage of historic wildfires that ravaged the city of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County." Former staff photographer

Annie Wells Annie Wells (born March 24, 1954) is an American photographer, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography. Life She graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz with a B.A. in 1981, and studied photojournalism at San Francisco St ...

also won the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography The Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography is one of the American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. From 2000 it has used the "breaking news" name but it is considered a continuation of the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photogr ...

"for her dramatic photograph of a local firefighter rescuing a teenager from raging floodwaters." The newspaper was also the 2004 recipient of the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

for Regional Reporting, given annually by

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university with two main campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. It offers more than 500 academic programs at its main campuses, online, and at multiple non-residential. LIU ...

to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Press Democrat, The George Polk Award recipients Daily newspapers published in the San Francisco Bay Area Publications established in 1897 Mass media in Santa Rosa, California 1897 establishments in California History of Sonoma County, California Pulitzer Prize-winning newspapers