Auction of ‘Santa Barbara News-Press’ Assets Proceeds in Pieces

A spanner entered the works of the Santa Barbara News-Press bankruptcy hearing when Judge Ronald A. Clifford expressed consternation about the auctioning of the paper’s assets. Liquidation of the 150-year-old newspaper’s assets is proceeding piecemeal: The online website — which spans the last quarter-century — sold for $285,000 in April. On September 24 will come the sale of the physical archive, and the auction of everything that isn’t nailed down will happen by October 27.

What perturbed Judge Clifford was an opposition filed by attorney William Beall on behalf of NP 2024 LLC, which had bought the online website, trademark, and copyright. The legal filing asserted that anything in the upcoming auction that contained something like a computer hard drive holding materials that went online — photographs perhaps — the right to that material belonged to his clients, a group of “local kids” fronted by Ben Romo.

How will anyone know what they are buying? the judge demanded. What was in the online pot and what was in the tangible goods pot?

The attorney representing the bankruptcy trustee jumped in, assuring the judge that he and Beall have been negotiating this issue with the auctioneer. Eric Israel of Danning Gill law firm said the auctioneer planned to wipe any digital media before putting it up for sale, thereby preserving NP 2024’s trademark acquisition.

Judge Clifford was not pleased. “Those records represent a fairly important historical record of this community’s life,” he said. What if the auctioneer wiped that?

Israel and Beall stated Romo’s group intended to examine all digital media stored at the old building on De la Guerra Plaza and at the Goleta printing press plant before any wiping occurred, with a purchase in mind. Romo later said their interest was to preserve the newspaper’s entire archive, and that they were happy to pledge to help the Santa Barbara Historical Museum achieve the physical archive of bound books, clippings, and microfiche.

“The Historical Museum already has such knowledge, and they have the capacity,” Romo said, adding that he would not divulge either his client or the amount they’d pledged.

Dacia Harwood, who leads the museum, cheerfully verified these claims, but was careful to emphasize that the deal was not yet done: “There are no guarantees,” she clarified. Currently, the museum might buy the physical archive for $70,000. But bids in $1,000 increments will be accepted on September 24. 

Correction: The headline and subtitle of this story were updated on Thursday, September 12.