The Santa Clarita Valley Signal

The Santa Clarita Valley Signal is a newspaper in Santa Clarita, California, originally founded in 1919. The owners are Richard and Chris Budman.

The Santa Clarita Valley Signal

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	Richard and Chris Budman
Publisher	Richard Budman
Editor	Tim Whyte
Managing editor	Perry R. Smith[1]
Staff writers	Perry R. Smith (Santa Clarita city government reporter), Habeba Mostafa & Katherine Quezada (photographers), Michael Picarella (features writer), Ryan Romero (high school sportswriter), Kamryn Martell (staff writer)
Founded	1919
Language	English
Headquarters	25060 Avenue Stanford Santa Clarita, California 91355  United States
Circulation	8,000 (as of 2018)
Website	signalscv.com

The Signal covers the city of Santa Clarita and surrounding unincorporated areas in the Santa Clarita Valley, about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It covers community news, which includes government and politics, business, elementary, secondary and college education, public safety, features, entertainment and high school and college sports within the Santa Clarita Valley.

By 2018, it was the only newspaper serving the city.^[2] As at August 2018 it has a circulation of around 8,000.^[3] The Signal has its own editorial board.

History

The paper was founded in 1919 as a weekly, the Newhall Signal.

In 1963, the paper was purchased by Scott Newhall, the long-time editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. (Newhall, California, had been founded by Newhall's "great-grandfather during the California gold rush."^[4] Newhall sold The Signal in 1978, "but continued to edit [the paper] until 1988."^[4]

From 1978 to 2016, the Signal was owned by Savannah, Georgia-based Morris Multimedia. Led by chairman Charles H. Morris, Morris Multimedia owned the Signal for thirty-seven years.^[5]

In January 2016, Morris Multimedia sold The Signal to Paladin Multimedia Group.^[6] Charles F. Champion, the Signal's new president and publisher, said he wanted to "build on the paper's award winning news platform", attract more local advertisements, and increase his audience. At that time the forty editorial, advertising sales, circulation, digital and production departments staff members retained their jobs.^[6] Champion's business partners were Gary Sproule, Russ Briley and Ken DePaola.^[7]

In June 2018, Richard Budman, who had been the Signal's publisher under Morris Multimedia from 2004 to 2007, and his wife Chris Budman, purchased the Signal.^[7] (The Budmans purchased the Signal's Santa Clarita-based parent company Paladin Multimedia Group in an equity purchase.)^[7][5][8]

Tim Whyte, who had worked with Budman as the Signal's general manager until 2007, returned as editor-in-chief in 2018. Whyte writes all the editorials for the daily. In 2018, along with the five-day edition, the Signal began to publish a new Sunday magazine with free distribution to 75,000 households, featuring a "bylined column" entitled "Black and Whyte" by Whyte.^[9]

Controversy

According to an October 9, 2018 article in the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), the new management led to a conservative shift in the paper's editorial stance, which prompted a group of progressives in the Santa Clarita Valley to start their own news outlet, the Proclaimer.^[9] According to a July 24, 2018 article in The Daily Beast, the Budmans have espoused conspiracy theories and promoted the Republican Party in the valley. Richard Budman defended himself against allegations that the couple's politics could influence the newspaper's editorial stance, stating that the newspaper ran positive stories on Katie Hill, then a Democratic congressional candidate.^[2]