Pizza and gelato come to downtown Santa Barbara

Good morning, Santa Barbara ☀️

Here’s what we have for you today:

Eric Bowers looks to fill Richard Mayer’s shoes on the Goleta School Board
Pizza and gelato come to downtown
A look at Santa Barbara Unified and Goleta City Council candidates
Don’t forget to check out my podcast series with Santa Barbara City Council candidates. The News-Press is partnering with TV Santa Barbara on production.

Joshua Molina

News-Press Editor

Stories you should know about

Did we consent to this? Companies are looking to counter the wave of backlash against AI-generated content or “slop.” (Wired)

Farmers across the U.S. are overhauling what they feed their cows and turning to healthier forms of soybeans (Los Angeles Times)
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that 20,000 Tesla vehicles violate safety standards because of bright headlights. (Gizmodo)

Journalism pay and the KEYT strike

KEYT workers made headlines on the first day of Fiesta last week when they announced that they were going to strike for the day.

According to Tom Schultz’s story, half of the KEYT newsroom bargaining unit makes the California minimum wage of $16.90 per hour.

The situation got me thinking about journalism and the things we do — despite low pay — and the lack of understanding many in the public have for how we do our jobs.

Some facts: In California, the minimum wage for a fast-food worker is $20 an hour. Jobs at Panda Express, Chick-fil-A and In-N-Out Burger all pay more than $20 an hour in the Santa Barbara area.

There’s nothing wrong with fast-food jobs, but it’s just plain wrong that you can get paid more flipping burgers and frying rice than you can, in some cases, chasing down the news.

It is true that no one in journalism goes into the business to get rich. There’s a journalism “gene” that we have. We do it because we love the idea of possibly changing the world through our reporting. It’s possible that our reporting might inform someone to make better decisions about their life. Our work might shine a light on systems that are broken, and, as a result, change happens.

A story in the Student Press Report interviewed recent college grads about why they pursue journalism even though most entry-level jobs don’t pay a living wage to start. Their answers ranged from the fact that jobs bring them “joy,” to “democracy needs reporters.”

I see this firsthand every day. At the News-Press, we have six paid interns this summer, graduates and students of UC Berkeley, UCLA and Santa Barbara City College. They know full well what the job market entails, but they want jobs in the industry anyway. The joy in their eyes when they practice journalism is visible and palpable. They want to feel like their work makes the world a better place.

When I see the workers striking, it makes me sad that we live in a world where journalists are underpaid and underappreciated. We need to respect and appreciate all journalists, from TV and radio to print and online, because our world is a better place when journalists are paid a living wage, and there are many of us doing the job.

We need to be willing to pay for journalism and resist relying on AI for our news. Only people can report and write the news.

Sydney McGarr, the author of the Student Press Report article about why graduates pursue journalism, wrote: “Throughout my early years in this career, I haven’t met a single journalist who isn’t open-minded, brilliant and most of all, courageous.”

We are courageous. Whether we are striking or fortunate enough to be working, we know we make this world better, and that’s worth a lot.

From the archive

Twenty-five years ago today, the Santa Barbara News-Press won some awards from the California News Publishers Association.

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