[6] The newspaper expanded its holdings in 1988 to include The Californian in Temecula and Fallbrook Enterprise, both purchased from longtime owner Marmack Publishing Co.[7] In 1990, the Times-Advocate was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Explanatory Journalism for its coverage of a shooting spree by an Escondido mail carrier and an examination of the challenges faced by Postal Service workers.

[8] In 1995, Tribune Publishing sold its Southern California holdings, including its largest one, the Times-Advocate, to Howard Publications.

[16][17] In 1979 photographer Len Lahman quit his job at the Los Angeles Times to begin a one-year personal project documenting the lives of California's migrant workers and the toll their living and working conditions had taken on them.

His photo essay, pioneering for its time, was rejected by numerous publications, including National Geographic.

He finally found a publisher in the Times-Advocate who ran it in 1980 as a 16-page supplement entitled Faces Beyond the Border.