We’ve enjoyed writing for the Web, a new experience for all of us print reporters who were illegally fired from the Santa Barbara News-Press. It’s been great running our own show, free of interference from an abusive publisher. We hope we have been of service to you since we launched the site on April 2.

It was a pleasure to get back to writing in-depth local news, now so sadly missing from the pages of McCaw’s paper. We want to thank all of you readers and Teamsters from around the country who donated so generously to keep our Web site going for more than three months. You helped us pay our bills, and through countless messages of goodwill, you encouraged us to continue our fight against Wendy McCaw, the News-Press owner and co-publisher.

We simply don’t have the funds to continue online indefinitely.  But we are not going away! It’s time to step up our campaign for reinstatement to the News-Press and a Teamster contract in the newsroom. Beginning Aug. 14, we will be on the witness stand as the News-Press goes on trial in Santa Barbara on charges of 15 violations of federal labor law, including our firings.

You may ask why we would even consider returning to a newspaper that has become a bad example in the industry, a cautionary tale of what happens when a publisher throws ethics to the winds. More than 50 journalists have quit the News-Press in protest since July of last year, when McCaw began attacking her own staff.

We want to make sure that McCaw treats her employees fairly and respects our right to have a voice in the workplace. We want to ensure that she establishes a clear separation between opinion and news and abides by the standards of ethical journalism set by former News-Press Publisher Thomas Storke, who vowed to tell the truth “without fear or favor of friend or foe.”

The News-Press trial will be held at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court building on State Street and the public may attend. We will be represented by federal lawyers and we expect to win our case. But McCaw could delay justice for more than a year through frivolous appeals.

We want justice now, and we are counting on you to help us. If you still have not cancelled your News-Press subscription, please join the thousands of former readers who are boycotting the paper. If you shop at a business that advertises in the paper, please ask the owner to stop doing business with McCaw until she obeys the law.

News-Press subscriptions are selling very cheaply now. Don’t be tempted! Every subscription McCaw gets postpones justice for us and delays the day when readers can trust the News-Press again. We’ve been robbed of our jobs and our rights to a voice on the job. You’ve been robbed of your First Amendment rights to a free press.

To fight McCaw’s millions, we need your donations. You can help advance our campaign by sending a contribution to the Santa Barbara Union Defense Fund, P.O. Box 30041, Santa Barbara, CA 93130. The Teamsters, our staunch allies in this fight, will forward every penny to us.

Please help us keep the pressure on Wendy McCaw, the bully in De la Guerra Plaza. Together, we will win!

Sincerely yours,

The Staff of SantaBarbaraNewsroom.com