The ''Del Norte Triplicate'' is an American paid newspaper which serves the city of Crescent City and surrounding

Del Norte County Del Norte County (Spanish for "Of The North") is a county located at the far northwest corner of the U.S. state of California, along the Pacific Ocean adjacent to the Oregon border. Its population was 27,743 as of the 2020 census, down from 28 ...

. It is published weekly on Fridays.

History

The ''Del Norte Daily Triplicate'' traces its roots back to 1879, starting as the ''Del Norte Record''. The Record was established by J. E. Eldredge, edited by George Leon, and was the official paper of Del Norte County. The name ''Del Norte Daily Triplicate'' comes from the names of three papers that united in 1912—the Coast Times, Del Norte Record, and Crescent City News. The term comes not from the term used for carbon copies, but from the original Latin ''triplicare'', meaning "a third thing corresponding to others of the same kind." In 1913, W.H. McMaster left the Palladium and became editor and manager of the ''Del Norte Triplicate''. John A. Juza purchased the ''Triplicate'' in December 1922, updating the press to a linotype machine. Prior to joining the ''Triplicate'', Juza had been publisher of ''The Reporter'' in Oregon. John Juza and his wife Ella Mae ran the paper for 30 years until their retirement. In 1956, the paper broke with longstanding tradition of withholding names of arrested minors from print, making its policy to print them even for minor infractions. In 1964, the ''Triplicate'' was completely destroyed in the wake of a tidal wave caused by a major Alaskan earthquake. Bill Soberanes of the Petaluma Argus-Courier reported that "The building in which this newspaper had been published (up until the tidal wave) was hit by the full blast of the tidal wave. Every copy of the newspaper printed the day before was washed away. The two linotypes were flooded over and rendered useless by the onrushing ocean waves." The tidal wave, which did significant damage to Crescent City with a 21-foot wave traveling 500 miles per hour, killed 11 people in the city. The Triplicate's editor, James J. Yarbrough recalled, "There was eight feet of water in my office. I watched from up the street and saw the sparks fly when the water hit the Linotype machine. I saw a 900-pound roll of newsprint bobbing around like a spool." After the destruction, the Triplicate moved its printing headquarters to Humboldt County. The move to Humboldt County called into question the paper's designation as a paper of record for Del Norte County. In 1965, Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch ruled that the paper could still be considered a general circulation paper for Del Norte County, despite its removed printing location. In 1988, the newspaper was sold to

Western Communications Western Communications, Inc. was an American newspaper publisher serving the states of Oregon and California from 1953 to 2019. The family-owned company was based in Bend, Oregon and was founded by Robert W. Chandler. Its flagship paper was '' Th ...

. The company owned the paper until 2019 when the ''Triplicate'' was acquired by

Country Media, Inc. Country Media, Inc. is an American media and web design company based in Salem, Oregon, which owns 10 community newspaper properties in Oregon and one in California. The company previously owned newspapers in the West North Central states. His ...

Awards

In 2017, the Del Norte Triplicate won 2nd place in the Breaking News category in its division of the California's Better Newspapers Contest.

References

{{reflist Weekly newspapers published in California Crescent City, California Del Norte County, California Newspapers established in 1879 1879 establishments in California