This spring, Patricia Solorio joined a small group of community leaders in Santa Maria to discuss what Santa Barbara County needed most from local news. The meeting was one of several hosted by NEWSWELL to gather community input and research ahead of relaunching the Santa Barbara News-Press.
The sessions were part of a broader landscape analysis by the News Revenue Hub and commissioned by NEWSWELL, which was gifted the digital assets of the News-Press earlier in the year. In addition to community conversations, researchers examined the state of local news across Santa Barbara County through a content analysis of 955 stories and a countywide survey.
As associate director of The Fund for Santa Barbara — and a lifelong North County resident — Solorio came ready to contribute to the listening session.
“I appreciated the opportunity to engage in this project,” she said. “I’m a news junkie, and I see the need and the importance of making sure that we have accurate, accessible information.”
But as the conversation unfolded, Solorio noticed a gap in outreach and accessibility.
“If I’m being totally transparent, I was a little disappointed,” she recalled. While survey materials had been translated into Spanish, there was no option for Indigenous residents — communities like the Mixteco, who speak only their native language and can be culturally and linguistically isolated.
That observation — and Solorio’s willingness to speak up — changed the trajectory of the project. Soon after, NEWSWELL invited her to lead new listening sessions focused on Spanish-speaking and Indigenous communities in North County. The result was a richer, more representative portrait of Santa Barbara County and its residents’ needs.
Not enough news — especially in North County
While Santa Barbara County ranks relatively high in journalism coverage — with 11.7 journalists per 100,000 residents, placing it in the top 30% of U.S. counties, according to Muck Rack — those numbers don’t tell the full story.
The News Revenue Hub’s content analysis found that although the county has several local outlets, the volume and reach of news remain insufficient, particularly outside the city of Santa Barbara.
Across five outlets analyzed, nearly 45% of all local coverage centered on the city of Santa Barbara, while the North County communities of Santa Maria, Lompoc, Guadalupe and Orcutt received far less attention. Santa Maria — the county’s largest city and home to a quarter of its population — accounted for just 8% of total coverage.
Residents in North County listening sessions described how this lack of local reporting shapes both perception and participation. One Lompoc attendee said the absence of on-the-ground reporters contributes to negative coverage.
“There’s no relationship, so everything’s just like — all this negative stuff’s happening,” he said. “There’s no opportunity to give a positive light to anything.”
A clear message from the community
Across surveys and listening sessions, residents expressed a strong desire for local news that reflects a broader range of voices and perspectives. Only 48% of survey respondents said their community’s experiences are represented accurately in local media. While 16% strongly agreed with that statement, 5% strongly disagreed. Participants cited a lack of diversity in who gets quoted, what issues are covered and how stories are told.
The content analysis backed up those concerns. More than half of local stories (57%) included no human sources at all, and few featured “regular” residents without official titles. Without those perspectives, the community’s stories — and its diversity — risk being lost.
Nearly half of Santa Barbara County residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, and an estimated 30,000-35,000 residents — roughly 7% of the population — are Indigenous. Yet both groups remain notably underrepresented in local media.
Solorio wanted to help change that, starting with deeper community outreach.
With support from the News Revenue Hub and NEWSWELL, Solorio worked with local partners to organize five Spanish-language listening sessions in Santa Maria and Lompoc over the summer, including one conducted in both Mixteco and Spanish. These sessions, which engaged 10-15 residents each, revealed that many people rely on platforms like WhatsApp, TikTok and Facebook chisme pages for local information — even when they know the news there can be unreliable.
During one session, an attendee described the confusion and anxiety they felt during the Gifford fire that burned over 130,000 acres across Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties during the summer.
“We only see images, but we don’t really know how many acres have burned, how many people are working there, why they can’t control it,” they said. “There isn’t reliable information telling us if it’s being put out or what’s really happening. We’re just waiting, worried it might come here.”
Participants also discussed accessibility — not just translation.
“Our community is visual,” one Santa Maria attendee explained. “Don’t put (it all in) words because if it’s a lot of information, we get lost.”
Others emphasized the power of video and audio storytelling for people with limited literacy.
Redefining access and representation
Solorio’s feedback didn’t just improve NEWSWELL’s outreach — it helped shape the organization’s vision for inclusive local journalism.
“I encourage people to make sure, when they’re developing a plan, to make it intentionally inclusive of the folks they look to represent,” she said.
She pointed to the many “brilliant ideas” that came out of the sessions, including more video storytelling, breaking news notifications and opportunities for residents to contribute information. Many participants said they get most of their news on their phones and expressed interest in a robust local news app.
“There’s so much knowledge and wisdom in these communities,” Solorio said. “We need to value that.”
For the new Santa Barbara News-Press to succeed, she believes it must reflect the entire county. She hopes to see people who are familiar with North County represented in interviews and on staff.
“That would signal that there’s genuine interest in wanting to incorporate the entire county, and not just South County,” she said.
For Solorio, local news is more than a service — it’s a civic necessity. “We’re already seeing what happens when people can’t learn about what’s happening in their community,” she said, citing low voter turnout and limited participation at public meetings.
“Local news is the scaffolding,” Solorio said. “It’s the scaffolding that holds democracy together.”
Katie Hawkins-Gaar is a veteran journalist and freelance writer. She previously worked at CNN and the Poynter Institute and now works with a variety of journalism support organizations, including the News Revenue Hub, Press Forward and Report for America. She lives in Atlanta with her family.
