Santa Maria Times


The Santa Maria Times is a daily American newspaper on California's Central Coast serving the cities of Santa Maria; Orcutt; Guadalupe; Nipomo; unincorporated parts of northern Santa Barbara County and southern San Luis Obispo County. It is published daily Tuesday through Sunday, and is part of Santa Maria News Media Inc., which also publishes the Lompoc Record and Santa Ynez Valley News, among other newspapers.

History

The Santa Maria Times was established in April 1882. In 1918, the paper became a daily.
Owner E.L. Petersen sold the paper in 1938 to Robert and Stanworth Hancock, who in turn sold the paper to Kansas-based Stauffer Communications in 1948. In 1947 the paper bought up the Santa Maria Vidette, Guadalupe Gazette, and Santa Maria Courier, and later the Santa Maria Advertiser Burl Hagagone bought the paper in 1958. The paper had been owned by Pulitzer, Inc. at the time of the company's acquisition by Lee Enterprises in 2005.
In 2017, the Santa Maria Times won 2nd place in the General Excellence category in its division of California's Better Newspapers Contest. It also won awards that year for video journalism and agricultural reporting.
In November 2019, Davis Taylor became Regional Publisher and Marga K. Cooley is the Managing Editor. In March 2020, the paper was sold to Santa Maria News Media Inc. a newly formed company led by a group of Canadian newspaper executives.