Citizen McCaw

Citizen McCaw, the prescient and acclaimed 2008 documentary that chronicles the heartbreaking and heedless destruction of Santa Barbara’s historic daily newspaper, will return for a free, one-time public screening at The Marjorie Luke Theatre, Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 7 p.m.

The film focuses on the dramatic events of 2006-07 that stunned the community and set in motion the slow decline and inexorable death of the once-vibrant Santa Barbara News-Press, now in bankruptcy proceedings. While presaging an era of vast economic disruption for the newspaper industry, the documentary most importantly tells the sad, shameful and uniquely local story of how an enterprise was destroyed, after serving Santa Barbara, for a century-and-a-half, as a town square of shared and trusted public interest news and information.

This free showing is underwritten by Newsmakers, with support and permission from the film’s co-producers, Rod Lathim, Charles Minsky, Peter Seaman, Brent Sumner, and Sam Tyler. It will be followed by a panel discussion about the future of local news.

The panelists include:
Jennifer Holt, UCSB Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies and an expert on the changing media landscape
Sarah Sinclair, Advertising Director of the Santa Barbara Independent
Gwyn Lurie, Publisher of the Montecito Journal
Ryan P. Cruz, journalist at the Santa Barbara Independent
Lily Dallow, Digital Content Director of KEYT