Wendy McCaw Biography
Wendy McCaw is a businesswoman and the owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press, a newspaper that filed for bankruptcy on July 21, 2023. It premiered on March 7, 2008, in Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre, was released on DVD, and has been shown at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and other journalism schools.
Wendy McCaw Age
She was born Wendy Petrak in 1952 in Palo Alto, California, United States of America. Wendy is 72 years old as of 2023.
Wendy McCaw Education
She attended Stanford University, where she majored in history.
Wendy McCaw Husband
During her years on campus, she met Craig McCaw. They married a year after graduating in 1974. They built McCaw Communications into McCaw Cellular during their marriage, eventually selling to AT&T in 1994. Wendy, represented by attorney Evan Schwab, received a reported $460 million (US) divorce settlement in 1997.
Wendy McCaw Career
McCaw paid $100 million acquired the Santa Barbara News-Press, one of California’s oldest newspapers, from The New York Times in 2000. McCaw was accused of meddling with the News-Press’s editorial judgment in 2006. As a result of the issue, five editors and a writer resigned. Since she bought the daily in 2000, a number of other publishers and editors have departed due to disagreements with McCaw. McCaw sued Chapman University professor Susan Paterno in December 2006 over a piece in the American Journalism Review that challenged her management of the paper. As of 2016, the newspaper’s personnel has shrunk from 200 when she purchased it to 20.
Following various administrative and court verdicts against McCaw and the News-Press, the National Labor Relations Board said in July 2018 that it will seek $2.2 million on behalf of dozens of newsroom staff who had been mistreated by McCaw. McCaw will be required to pay $936,000 to “make employees whole” for illegally recruiting nonunion temporary workers, $705,000 in back pay for two employees she improperly lay off or dismissed, and $222,000 in merit pay for employees she illegally suspended. The News-Press declared bankruptcy on Friday, July 21, 2023, thereby ending over 150 years of print. Local news website Noozhawk said that managing editor Dave Mason wrote an email to the team saying, “I have some awful news. Wendy declared bankruptcy.
Wendy McCaw Films
Citizen McCaw is a 2008 documentary film directed by Sam Tyler that examines McCaw’s relationships with her former editor, Jerry Roberts, and five other employees since July 2006, when they left her staff at the Santa Barbara News-Press, as well as the direction the newspaper and her ethics have taken since her ownership began. It premiered on March 7, 2008, in Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre, was released on DVD, and has been exhibited at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism as well as other journalism colleges.
Wendy McCaw Net Worth
Wendy has an estimated net worth of 500 thousand dollars.