Sonoma Media Investments

Ricardo Ibarra - la prensa

Ricardo Ibarra first met Darius Anderson “in one of those large buildings in San Francisco’s financial district.” It was Anderson’s San Francisco office, in fact – and Ibarra was there for a job interview.

It was 2015.  Anderson – an investor, developer, lobbyist, and publisher who maintains offices in Washington DC, Sacramento, and Sonoma as well as San Francisco – had launched La Prensa Sonoma, a new Spanish language media outlet for the North Bay. He was looking for someone to lead it, and Ibarra was applying for the position.

“I rode to the interview on a bike,” Ibarra says, “and I was pretty sweaty. I was also dressed casually, and I had long hair and a beard. This was the final interview of a series, and I figured I had to be myself. I was confident I could do the job, and I wanted Darius to see that confidence. If he was going to hire me, I wanted him to hire me for who I was, not for someone I pretended to be.”

Anderson seemed to appreciate such forthrightness, Ibarra says.

“I met him, and he was low-key and easy-going,” Ibarra says, “and we chatted for about 30 minutes. And after that, he called his company’s CEO and said, ‘Hire him.’ And just like that, I was editor of La Prensa.”

Ibarra grew up in Mexico, and he has spent his entire professional life as a journalist. When he came to Sonoma County, three things struck him.

“The first was how beautiful it was,” he says. “I drove around, and I realized how much I wanted to live here – and how much I wanted to work here as a reporter.”

The second thing was the size of the Latino community: fully 30% of the county’s population.

And the third thing?

“This very large community had no real means of connecting before we started La Prensa,” says Ibarra. “They didn’t know the local news, they didn’t know the actions of city and county governments, they didn’t know about the schools they sent their kids to, or new restaurants opening up, or entertainment options. They didn’t know critical things that had real and direct effects on their lives – including immigration policies and crackdowns.  So from the beginning, that was my mission – provide Spanish-speaking people in Sonoma County the news they desperately needed.”

Ibarra was gratified that Anderson shared the same vision.

“When Darius told me he wanted to give a voice to the voiceless, that he wanted to give marginalized people in Sonoma County the attention and respect they deserved, I was thrilled,” recalls Ibarra. “It says a lot about him that he wanted to invest in this kind of project.”

La Prensa was instantly enfolded in an enthusiastic abrazo by Sonoma County’s Latino community. Under Ibarra’s tireless efforts and Anderson’s staunch support, the publication established a highly popular website followed by a print edition, a presence on all major social media, and a newsletter.

“We had thousands of followers, and some of our posts literally had millions of views,” says Ibarra. “Darius made it clear that I needed to connect deeply with the community, and that’s what I did. Along with putting up content on the website and social media and getting out the hard copy edition, I was constantly out in the community, meeting people, shaking hands, going to restaurant openings, visiting the schools – just making sure people knew I cared about them and their issues, and that I was committed to covering everything of importance and providing a forum where they could be heard. Darius wanted me to establish myself as the man the community could trust. I dedicated myself to that mission, and I think that’s why La Prensa has the credibility it has today.”

That trust was critical during the catastrophic North Bay fires of 2017, says Ibarra. The Tubbs fire came within four blocks of his home; roused by the flames and noise, he immediately logged on to local news sites and social media and saw that all the information was disseminated in English – there was no Spanish analog. Ibarra worked out of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat offices, so he went to the newsroom and immediately started reporting.

“The Latino community was basically in a panic,” Ibarra says. “They didn’t know what was going on, they didn’t know where to go.”

Through his reporting, Ibarra determined that many people were camping under bridges, or in their cars along the coast.

“There were also rumors that ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] was taking people into custody,” Ibarra says. “So we covered what was going on every day, and we put it all up in Spanish. We told people where to go, where to get resources and support – and we also confirmed that ICE wasn’t arresting people. And we could do all that because La Prensa had been building community connections for two years. By that time, people knew where to go for information – we were able to provide comfort and guidance because they trusted us.”

Because of Anderson’s commitment and investment in La Prensa, Ibarra summarizes, the contributions of the Latino community to Sonoma County have finally gained some much-deserved recognition, leading to enhanced engagement – and power.

“Latinos are realizing they have a right to participate in all aspects of civic and political life,” he says.  “By establishing La Prensa, Darius created a foundation for the emergence of other Spanish media – and for better policy, such as increased bilingual educational initiatives and bilingual public notices. La Prensa drove that initial awareness and helped establish a sense of belonging. It told stories of who we are and what we want for our families. And that served as a mirror that we could hold up to the larger society and say, ‘See – we share the same stories. We have the same desires and goals.’”

Bill Lynch

Bill Lynch knows newspapers. He was the editor-in-chief of the Sonoma Index-Tribune for 40 years, a publication he co-owned with his brother, Jim. During that time, he had seen both the best and worst of the print news business, from the go-go 1970s through the precipitous decline initiated by the internet in the late 1990s. And like the old Kenny Rogers song, he knew when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em: as the new century dawned, Lynch saw trouble ahead for the Index-Tribune.

“We had a property behind our main office building that was our press and storage room,” recalls Lynch. “We printed our own newspaper, and we also did a lot of printing for other papers around the area. But by 2007, it was clear that printing was becoming more of a liability than an asset. Our problem reflected the issues affecting the industry at large – newspapers were folding all over the country. It just didn’t make sense for us to maintain a printing business.”

And that included printing the Index-Tribune. Lynch and his brother determined it would be cheaper to print the newspaper at a large plant owned by the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.

“We ended up selling all our presses, and then we had this big, vacant building behind our offices,” says Lynch. “At that point we were approached by the owner of the Sonoma Valley Inn, which was just west and south of us. He was interested in adding to his operations and asked if we’d be willing to sell.”

Lynch indicated he was certainly willing to entertain the idea, but negotiations languished.

“That’s when Darius contacted us,” Lynch says.

Lynch had known Darius Anderson for some time. The developer and political consultant lived in Kenwood, and the Index-Tribune had sometimes covered his business activities.

“Darius always had four or five things going at any one time, and we’d cover anything that was of interest to our readers,” Lynch says. “He was always accessible and forthright.  We weren’t friends at that point, but he was incredibly personable – and living in Sonoma Valley as he did, he was essentially a neighbor. So we were friendly.”

Anderson was a co-owner of an antique shop adjacent to the paper, and he had learned that the Lynches might be willing to sell the building. He told the brothers he was interested in purchasing it.

“He basically said, ‘I’ll buy it right now,’” Lynch recalls. “At that time, we also owned and published Sonoma Magazine, which covered the county from a lifestyle perspective.  In that same conversation, Darius told us he really admired the magazine, and wondered if we’d be interested in selling that to him as well.”

The two brothers talked it over and realized Anderson’s offer coincided with a watershed moment in their own lives.

“I was ready to retire, and Jim felt he was ready to let go of the business as well,” says Lynch. “But we didn’t want to sell our assets piecemeal. We wanted to conclude everything in a single deal – the buildings, the publications, everything. And I told Darius that. He asked if we were serious, and we said absolutely – at the right price.”

The three men got down to serious discussions, and Lynch found his respect and esteem for Anderson growing.

“We spent several months negotiating, and over that time I got to know him well and I grew to really trust him,” says Lynch. “He’s a straightforward guy and serious about business, but he’s also very positive and enthusiastic in his outlook and approach to life. He never strongarmed us, but there’s something about Darius that’s an irresistible force. We ultimately reached a price that was acceptable to all of us.”

As part of the agreement, Lynch stayed on with the company for a couple of years as a consultant.

“Darius wanted to maintain some legacy there,” says Lynch. “And later, he asked me to continue to write a weekly column for the Index-Tribune – which I was delighted to do and am still doing.”

Lynch tracked Anderson’s subsequent North Bay purchases: among them the Petaluma Argus-Courier, the North Bay Business Journal, and finally, the Santa Rosa-Press Democrat. Today, the umbrella organization – Sonoma Media Investments – is one of the most prosperous locally-owned media companies in the country.

“Darius was investing when everyone else was getting out,” Lynch says. “Classified advertising was going down the tubes, and it was looking really dark. But he’s an eternal optimist, and he sees what other people don’t see. I think his investors are pretty happy with his decisions.”

Further, Sonoma Media Investments performed a genuine service to North Bay residents by purchasing and bolstering the region’s struggling news properties, Lynch continues.

“Just take the Press-Democrat as one example,” Lynch says. “If you look around the country, you’ll see that it’s very rare for a community to have a newspaper of any size these days – let alone one the quality of the PD.”

 Lynch observes most communities have either lost their papers or have seen them gobbled up by corporate chains led by executives who simply don’t care about covering local news.

“Their headquarters are usually located hundreds or thousands of miles from the communities they supposedly serve, and they just see the newspapers as places to hold ads,” he says.  “Also, no one on the internet has figured out how to do what local papers can do so well: explain in detail what’s going on in the community. People still want that – they need that. Darius and his partners have kept that alive for the North Bay. Good local news coverage is dying across the country but it’s thriving here, thanks to Darius and his partners. And as a newspaperman, I see that as a tremendous accomplishment.”

Catherine Barnett

It’s a tough time for the newspaper business. As editorial content and advertising revenues have migrated to the internet, circulation and revenues for newspapers have plummeted. The downturn has been particularly severe for newspapers serving towns and smaller cities. Many community newspapers have folded, leaving residents with no steady and reliable access to local and regional news.

Several years ago, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat found itself in a parlous situation. It wasn’t a tiny paper: owned by the New York Times, it was the largest newspaper on California’s North Coast, providing in-depth, unbiased coverage to 60,000 daily readers. It also had an illustrious history, winning a Pulitzer Prize for photography in 1997 and a George Polk Award for regional reporting in 2004.

But the “PD,” as it’s known by its readers, was hardly immune to the general pressures facing print journalism. The powers-that-be at the New York Times determined the paper was an asset that warranted selling, and they put it on the block. It subsequently was bought by the Halifax Media Group, a Florida-based organization that owns numerous newspapers in the southeastern United States.

“It was clear from the start that Hallifax bought us with the intention of selling us,” says Catherine Barnett, the recently retired Editor-in-Chief of the Press-Democrat, “and that created considerable tension in the newsroom. Rumors were flying, and some of the possibilities that were circulating were frankly awful.”

But one of the rumors was about a consortium of local investors led by Darius Anderson and former U.S. Congressman Doug Bosco. And that, said Barnett, inspired a glimmer of hope among the PD’s editors and reporters.

“I was convinced that Darius’ group – Sonoma Media Investments – offered the best future for the Press Democrat,” said Barnett, “and that opinion was widely shared in the newsroom. So it was a great relief when he confirmed the sale.”

Some staffers worried Anderson might attempt to influence the PD’s coverage, acknowledged Barnett – but those concerns were quickly dispelled.

“Shortly after we were acquired, a group of us met with Darius and our new publisher, Steve Falk,” recalled Barnett. “Darius didn’t ask much about the PD – the main thing he talked about was starting a new lifestyle magazine so everyone could understand how great Sonoma County is. Which, now that I know him, was classic Darius. He has a wide-ranging mind that’s always moving on to the next thing. He had just bought the Press-Democrat, but he already was thinking of initiating new publishing ventures.”

At the same time, Barnett said, Anderson made it crystal clear he had no intention of tinkering with the PD’s coverage.

“He said he wouldn’t interfere, and he hasn’t,” Barnett says. “The understanding was that he would engage with the lifestyle magazine [Sonoma Magazine] but not the Press-Democrat. And he’s been true to his word.”

Sonoma Magazine has proven a labor of love for Anderson, Barnett says.

“He goes through every page prior to publication, carefully reviewing the copy and art, and he always picks the cover,” she says. “I learned a lot about Darius from our magazine meetings. I discovered he is deeply curious and tolerant, with the ability to take the long view – something that isn’t that common in the investment community.  He’s genuinely interested in people, and not as a lobbyist or developer or investor. It’s just because people engage him. He has real connections with a wide range of people, from senators and governors to waiters and truck drivers. You can’t fake that.”

Anderson made good on another promise, says Barnett: putting money into the Press Democrat’s newsroom to assure it had the necessary resources to cover the issues. That made a big difference during a crucial event: the North Bay fires of 2017.

“Our newsroom is smaller than it was at its peak,” says Barnett, “but whose isn’t? And Darius made funding news coverage a priority, even when things we’re roughest. That made a huge difference on October 8th, when the Tubbs Fire started. Before it was over, 27 people had died and 5,300 homes had burned. And we were able to cover it because we had a strong, brave staff that came in without being called, and did what had to be done. We worked around the clock. You must have people you know and trust to do that kind of work – and to a very real degree, we were able to do it because Darius and his group had invested in the paper.”

The Pulitzer Committee agreed with Barnett’s assessment, awarding the Press Democrat the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. Today, the PD continues to punch well above its weight, competing successfully with much larger metros for the scoops and awards that are the hallmarks of a great newspaper.

Anderson has expanded Sonoma Media Investment’s holdings considerably since its original acquisitions. In addition to the Press Democrat and Sonoma Magazine, the company also owns the Sonoma Index-Tribune, the Petaluma Argus-Courier, the North Bay Business Journal, and the Sonoma County Gazette. It also founded Sonoma County’s premier Spanish language publication, La Prensa.

“It was a contrarian move for Darius to invest in media when he did, but I’ve come to realize that contrarianism is a central element of his business strategy,” says Barnett. “Thanks largely to his management the investment worked out well, and I think the community has benefited from the journalism his publications provide. For example, he saw where the state was going in terms of Latino demographics, and he was key in pressing for both a La Prensa website and print component. He’s built relationships inside and outside the newsrooms, and he’s helped create a new kind of storytelling for county media.”

Barnett is retired now, but she misses the intensity and excitement of the newsroom – and her interactions with Anderson.

“I enjoyed those magazine meetings,” she says. “I always learned something from talking to him – not just about matters related to the magazine, but on a broad range of topics. He knows so many prominent people, and his insights on them were fascinating. You’d ask him a question about something, and he’d know it right down to the ground. He’s an interesting and complex man, and I really enjoyed working with him.”

Doug Bosco

Doug Bosco served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1991, representing California’s 1st District – at that time a sprawling and beautiful electoral precinct that encompassed the North Coast from Marin County to the Oregon border.

The North Bay retained its hold on Bosco even after leaving Congress. He remains active in regional and state politics, and practices law out of his Santa Rosa office. No surprise, then, that Bosco and Darius Anderson are well acquainted with each other; indeed, they’re far more than acquaintances. Bosco was one of Anderson’s first mentors, and their friendship has endured for more than 30 years.

“Actually, I’ve known Darius’ parents for a very long time,” says Bosco. “They’re wonderful, rock-solid people, and I met Darius through them.  He did yard work for me, and at one point he and I put up a split-rail fence all around a five-acre parcel I owned in Occidental. I don’t really think of him as a landscape architect, but I have to say that he was a good worker.”

When Bosco was elected to Congress, Anderson asked him for an internship.

“I thought about it for a second, and said ‘Sure, why not?,’ ” says Bosco. “And that summer he showed up in Washington. He was immediately popular with all the other interns, and he took to the town right away.”

Shortly after arriving in Washington, Anderson asked if he could serve as Bosco’s chauffeur.

“I said ‘Darius, Congressmen don’t have chauffeurs – we drive ourselves around,” Bosco says. “But he was adamant, saying ‘No, no – I’d really like to drive you, hear all the stories, listen to the comments when you’re talking to other people, just learn how things are done here.’ So I relented. I was driving a nice Mercury Grand Marquis then, and I soon found out the real reason Darius asked to be my chauffeur – he wanted access to that car. He’d drop me off for a dinner or a reception at an embassy, and then he’d race back up to Capitol Hill, load up with interns, go to Georgetown and have a great time.”

In the decades since, Bosco has known Anderson in many different capacities.

“In Washington, he was the perfect guy to give tours of the Capitol, because everybody who came into the office just warmed to him immediately,” Bosco says. “He likes people, and he has that rare ability to put them completely at ease. But it was also clear there was no grass growing under his feet. He’s incredibly astute, and he always has his eye open for opportunities. And his interests – both personally and professionally – take so many different routes. He’s a real estate developer, a publisher, a financier, a collector, and he’s taught courses at UC Berkeley. And of course, he’s one of the most accomplished lobbyists working.”

Bosco characterizes lobbying as a complicated and subtle art that claims many practitioners, but few masters.

“Most people simply don’t have the skill set,” he observes. “I was lobbied as a legislator, of course, and you see a lot of different lobbying styles.  But what you quickly come to realize is that most lobbyists don’t really know what they’re talking about – their understanding of the issues, bills, or industries they’re trying to promote is generally pretty shallow. But Darius is different, and I know that because I’ve hired him as a lobbyist. He immerses himself thoroughly in his subject, and if he doesn’t know all the details, he’ll bring someone along on the pitch who does. That makes him effective.”

If Bosco respects Anderson’s business acumen, he personally esteems him for his commitment to the North Bay – and for one effort particularly.  It all started 10 years ago when Bosco walked out to his driveway one morning to pick up his copy of the local newspaper, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.

“And I’m reading it, and I see a story that says the PD’s owner, the New York Times Company, had sold the paper to a Florida outfit I’d never heard of,” Bosco recalls.

 Bosco inferred from the article that the new owners had no real interest in Sonoma County.

“It was clear they intended to chop up the paper’s assets and sell them for maximum profit,” says Bosco, “essentially leaving the North Bay without a reputable newspaper of record. So I called Darius up because he’s so good at creative thinking and quick response and said that we had to do something. And in minutes we started developing a game plan focused on getting a group of investors together to purchase and save the PD. And ultimately, we did it. Today we have one of the best newspapers in the state, a Pulitzer Prize winner that has a talented and growing editorial staff and covers local and regional news professionally and thoroughly. And Darius did the lion’s share of the work that made that possible. Of everyone I know, he’s the only one who could have pulled that off.”