[10] The paper had been owned by Pulitzer, Inc. at the time of the company's acquisition by Lee Enterprises in 2005.
[3] In 2016, the Santa Maria Times won first place in the General Excellence category in its division of California's Better Newspapers Contest.
", and in 2019 received a President's Award honorable mention by parent company Lee Enterprises for the newspaper’s in-depth series "Wildfire County: Planning for the next big blaze".
[11] In November 2019, Davis Taylor became Regional Publisher [12] Marga K. Cooley has been the Managing Editor since 2013.
[13] In March 2020, the paper was sold to Santa Maria California News Media Inc. a newly formed company led by a group of Canadian newspaper executives.