''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 27th largest paper in the U.S. It is distributed in the upper

Sacramento Valley , photo =Sacramento Riverfront.jpg , photo_caption= Sacramento , map_image=Map california central valley.jpg , map_caption= The Central Valley of California , location = California, United States , coordinates = , boundaries = Sierra Nevada (ea ...

, with a total circulation area that spans about : south to

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquired Rancho Campo de los Franceses. The city is named after R ...

, north to the

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

border, east to

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is th ...

, and west to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

.History of ''The Sacramento Bee''
from the newspaper's website ''The Bee'' is the flagship of the nationwide McClatchy Company. Its "Scoopy Bee" mascot, created by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

in 1943, has been used by all three ''Bee'' newspapers (in Sacramento,

Modesto Modesto () is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,464 at the 2020 census, it is the 19th largest city in the state of California and forms part of the Sacramento-Stockton ...

, and Fresno).

History

Under the name ''The Daily Bee'', the first issue of the newspaper was published on February 3, 1857, proudly boasting that "the object of this newspaper is not only independence, but permanence". At this time, ''The Bee'' was in competition with the '' Sacramento Union'', a newspaper founded in 1851. Although ''The Bee'' soon surpassed the ''Union'' in popularity, the ''Union'' survived until its closure in 1994, leaving ''The Sacramento Bee'' to be the longest-running newspaper in the city's history. The first editor of ''The Sacramento Bee'' was John Rollin Ridge, but

James McClatchy James McClatchy (1824–1883) was an American newspaper editor. He was the second editor of ''The Sacramento Bee'', which grew into The McClatchy Company, taking over just days after the newspaper began publication as ''The Daily Bee'' in February ...

took over the position by the end of the first week. Also within a week of its creation, ''The Bee'' uncovered a state scandal which led to the impeachment of Know-Nothing California State Treasurer Henry Bates.

21st century

On March 13, 2006, The McClatchy Company announced its agreement to purchase

Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper bra ...

, the United States' second-largest chain of daily newspapers. The purchase price of $4.5 billion in cash and stock gave McClatchy 32 daily newspapers in 29 markets, with a total circulation of 3.3 million. On February 3, 2007, the paper celebrated its 150th anniversary, and a copy of the original issue was included in every newspaper. On February 4, 2007, a 120-page section was included about the paper's history from its founding to today. In 2008, ''The Sacramento Bee'' redesigned and changed its layout.

Recognition

''The Sacramento Bee'' has won six

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

s in its history. It has won numerous other awards, including many for its progressive public service campaigns promoting free speech (the ''Bee'' often criticized government policy, and uncovered many scandals hurting Californians), anti-racism (''The Bee'' supported the Union during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

and publicly denounced the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cat ...

), worker's rights (''The Bee'' has a strong history of supporting

unionization The organizing model, as the term refers to trade unions (and sometimes other social-movement organizations), is a broad conception of how those organizations should recruit, operate, and advance the interests of their members, though the specific ...

), and

environmental protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...

(leading numerous tree-planting campaigns and fighting against environmental destruction in the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primar ...

Notable people

* Deborah Blum – science writer * Renée C. Byer – photojournalist * Gil Duran – California opinion editor and former Press Secretary for California governor

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of S ...

. * Jack Ohman – cartoonist * Nick Peters – baseball writer * Paul Avery – journalist who reported on the Zodiac killer * Nancy Weaver Teichert – former reporter

References

External links

''The Sacramento Bee''

CapitolAlert.com
Capitol politics by ''The Sacramento Bee''
Sacramento Bee
- Sacramento

LocalWiki LocalWiki is a collaborative project that aims to collect and open the world's local knowledge. The LocalWiki project was founded by DavisWiki creators Mike Ivanov and Philip Neustrom and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in San Fr ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sacramento Bee, The Daily newspapers published in California Mass media in Sacramento, California Mass media in Sacramento County, California Pulitzer Prize-winning newspapers Newspapers established in 1857 McClatchy publications 1857 establishments in California Pulitzer Prize for Public Service winners