The Pine Cone was founded in 1915 by William Overstreet who proclaimed in the first four page edition of 300 copies, "we are here to stay!" Overstreet sold the paper in 1926 to J.A. Easton. In 1926 writer and activist Perry Newberry was the editor of the Pine Cone and successfully ran for the office of city trustee, the equivalent of mayor. By 1929 members of the local arts community were elected to the Carmel Board of Trustees at the same time and most notably approved city zoning ordinance 96 designed to protect the thriving artist colony from unchecked development and commercialization. Newberry was the paper's co-publisher until he sold it in 1935. There is a street in Carmel, “Perry Newberry” named after him. from Ella Winter page: "Carmel was sharply divided between conservative and liberal factions; the latter quickly coalesced around the Steffens, who publicly debated the most controversial topics. The Irish poet and folklorist Ella Young, as well as the local press, described the relaxed social intercourse in this counterculture world. In 1928 the Steffens helped to create The Carmelite, a publication that was offered as an alternative to the town’s somewhat stodgy local paper, the Carmel Pine Cone." - search for linkages between Langston Hughes and Pine Cone / Robinson Jeffers Pine Cone publisher Allman Cook announced Aug. 21, 1969, that he’d sold the newspaper to John Mustard and Wayne Everton, owners and publishers of The Squire, a community weekly in Lafayette. Everton became the general manager, and Mustard, the publisher In 1983, the Pine Cone was converted from a paid newspaper to a free one by owners Al and Judy Eisner.
Veteran CBS and NBC network news producerPaul Miller became publisher in 1997. In 2005, after failing to convince city officials to rezone a potential site for the Pine Cone's operation, he moved the paper's production offices to Pacific Grove, while maintaining a reduced news staff in downtown Carmel. The last Carmel office was closed in 2009 so the paper is no longer made in Carmel. In 2007, the paper began offering an Adobe Acrobat version of its complete newspaper on the Internet, which has attracted more than 9,000 subscribers, in addition to the newspaper's weekly print circulation of approximately 19,000. Controversy
Awards
Every year, the paper gives Golden Pine Cone awards to local organizations, businesses, and individuals in categories related to arts, recreation, and dining.
