Newhalls’ New Newspaper Comes Out Fighting

For about six hours in the pre-dawn light Sunday an unlikely army of about two dozen newspaper-types drove the streets and highways of Santa Clarita Valley with one thing in mind.

Their purpose was not to find a story, but to distribute 40,000 copies of a new community newspaper.

The crew, including publisher Scott Newhall and his wife, Ruth Newhall, the paper’s editor, as well as reporters, photographers, ad salespeople, a bookkeeper and business manager, finished delivering Sunday’s inaugural edition of the Santa Clarita Valley Citizen by 8 a.m.

“It was an amazing scene,” Scott Newhall said. “I think it’s a miracle that it came out and was delivered. But, of course, we’re accustomed to working miracles.”

The Newhall family--Scott, 74, Ruth, 78 and their son Tony, 47--abruptly resigned from the three top posts at the Newhall Signal last month after 25 years with the paper. Attributing their departure to a long-simmering dispute with the paper’s owners over finances and stock ownership, the Newhalls decided to start a rival newspaper.

Twice Weekly

Unlike the Signal, which expanded publication from five to six times a week on Sunday, the Citizen will be published only on Wednesdays and Sundays. However, Scott Newhall said he is encouraged by the success and positive reaction to the paper’s maiden voyage.

If things keep going well, the paper might expand to publication three times a week, he said.

Newhall said he had planned on about 16 pages for the first issue, but the demand for advertising swelled Sunday’s paper to 28 pages. Full-page congratulatory messages were included among the paper’s advertisements.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Newhall said. “I think it was bigger than the Saturday Signal, in terms of advertising.”

Mimi’s Back

Both Scott and Ruth wrote stories in Sunday’s paper. In prominent spots on the front page were two of the hallmarks of the former Signal: the unrestrained front-page editorials by Scott Newhall, legendary among Santa Clarita Valley denizens, and Ruth Newhall’s gossipy news column, written under the pseudonym of “Mimi.” When it was in the Signal, the column was so popular that people in the community felt they hadn’t “made it” until their name was in Mimi’s column, according to one Santa Clarita civic leader.

The new paper’s logo is a phoenix rising from the flames with a joking Latin motto that roughly translates as: “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”

The first edition of the paper featured a pointed editorial titled “The Doomsday of Journalism” in which Scott Newhall wrote about the day in which “this weary editor, disheartened with the clatter and clang of today’s branch-office style of newspaper publishing, packed up his faithful typewriter and walked out the servant’s entrance of a prominent SCV daily publication.” He likened himself to a “feeble Don Quixote hunting for even feebler windmills.”

Suit Over Paper

The Newhalls are now embroiled in what Scott calls “the battle of the legal titans.” Atlanta-based Morris Newspaper Corp., owner of the Signal, filed a lawsuit last Tuesday against Scott Newhall and his son, Tony, charging them with breach of contract for starting the Citizen and for soliciting Signal employees and advertisers for their new paper.

A court order issued Thursday temporarily barred Tony Newhall from working on the newspaper. In fact, the elder Newhalls are forbidden from even talking to their son about their new venture, Scott Newhall said. A hearing to determine if Tony Newhall violated an agreement not to compete with the Signal is scheduled for Sept. 30.

The Newhalls, though upset by the lawsuit, have vowed to press on and make their effort “a popular new community newspaper in the Santa Clarita Valley.”

“We shall fight the good fight with words and stories and high principle and not waste our failing strength seeking succor from the law courts,” Scott Newhall wrote in his editorial.

Good Response

Reaction to the fledgling Citizen among Santa Claritans has been “very enthusiastic and very favorable,” its publisher said.

Some of those in Santa Clarita who have seen the paper say it is more community-oriented than the Signal, which includes a number of national stories.

“It seems to be like a pretty impressive start,” said City Councilman Carl Boyer III. “For one thing, it had enough advertising to show that it’s a paper that may well thrive. It also had a good solid editorial content.”

Neither the owner nor the publisher of the Newhall Signal could be reached for comment.

Former Signal employee Greg Warnagieris said of the Newhalls: “It’s a very courageous thing for them to carry on and fight this fight. They could very easily just throw up their hands and walk away and do anything else. But I think they care too much about the Santa Clarita Valley.”