The ''Daily Breeze'' is a 57,000-circulation daily

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, 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 poli ...

published in

Hermosa Beach, California Hermosa Beach (, Spanish for "Beautiful") is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Its population was 19,728 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area; ...

, United States. It serves the South Bay cities of

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

. Its slogan is "LAX to LA Harbor".

Early history

The paper was founded as the weekly ''The Breeze'' in 1894 by local political

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

S. D. Barkley and first served the local

Redondo Beach Redondo Beach (Spanish for ) is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent beach cities along the southern portion of Santa Mo ...

community. Coverage eventually spread to other coastal cities, and by 1922, it had become a daily publication. In 1928, the ''Daily Breeze'' was purchased by

Copley Press Copley Press was a privately held newspaper business, founded in Illinois but later based in La Jolla, California. Its flagship paper was ''The San Diego Union-Tribune''. History Founder Ira Clifton Copley launched Copley Press c. 1905, eventu ...

. The competition went out of business in 1970 (The ''Torrance Herald'', 1913–1969).

Modern history

Like most of the newspaper industry, the ''Daily Breeze'' has suffered its share of hardships, with the rise of free news on the Internet and the competitive Los Angeles media market. It merged with the (San Pedro) ''News-Pilot'' in 1999. In 2005, it added to its circulation numbers through the purchase of two local weeklies, '' The Beach Reporter'' and ''Palos Verdes Peninsula News''. In 2003, it created another weekly, ''More San Pedro'', in the Harbor Area. In December 2006, the paper was sold to the

Hearst Corporation Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...

in a complex transaction that left the paper under the day-to-day control of Dean Singleton's

MediaNews Group MNG Enterprises, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado, United States–based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 ass ...

and its subsidiary, the

Los Angeles Newspaper Group The Southern California News Group (SCNG), formerly the San Gabriel Valley News Group and the Los Angeles News Group, is an umbrella group of local daily newspapers published in the greater Los Angeles area of southern California by Digital Fir ...

(LANG). Singleton announced that he would fold the paper into the LANG operations, but not cut salaries. Singleton will eventually come to own the ''Daily Breeze'' under a 2007 plan to acquire ownership of the paper as part of a swap with Hearst in which Hearst would trade some California papers and the '' St. Paul Pioneer Press'' for an increased stake in Singleton's non-California operations. In 2008, the paper ceased producing its weekly supplement, ''More San Pedro''. Nine staff members were laid off at the same time including four reporters, a web editor, and a newsroom assistant. In 2015, the ''Daily Breeze'' won two major awards for its series of investigative reports, throughout 2014, regarding a financial scandal in the Centinela Valley Union High School District. In March, the paper won a Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for Community Journalism for the investigation, and in April the

Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting The Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting is awarded to an example of "significant issues of local or statewide concern, demonstrating originality and community connection". This Pulitzer Prize was first awarded in 1948. Like most Pulitzers the winn ...

In popular culture

The film ''Pineapple Express'' and television show ''Zeke & Luther'' have filmed at the ''Daily Breezes previous headquarters location in Torrance, California.

Early history

Modern history

In popular culture

References

Further reading