The Bakersfield Californian

The Bakersfield Californian is the direct descendant of Kern County's first newspaper, The Weekly Courier, which was first published on Aug. 18, 1866, in Havilah, California.

At that time, Havilah, a small mining town about 50 miles northeast of the present site of Bakersfield, was the center of the 1864 gold rush, which brought the first major population influx to Kern County.

Under Harrell's leadership, The Bakersfield Californian was recognized as one of California's finest newspapers, winning over 40 state and national awards for journalistic excellence.

In January 1989, Virginia F. Moorhouse, daughter of Berenice Koerber, was elected chairman and president of The Bakersfield Californian.

In 2020, The Bakersfield Californian earned first-place general excellence honors in the 2019 California Journalism Awards, recognizing the entire newsroom staff for its reporting and writing, photography, design and overall presentation.

Also in 2020, The Californian earned honors in seven of seven categories in the 32nd annual George F. Gruner Awards, recognizing excellence in Central Valley print journalism.

[13] In 2004, the paper received the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism[14] for Robert Price's January 2003 "Lords of Bakersfield" stories, which focused on the stabbing death of Assistant District Attorney Steven Tauzer and similar crimes committed over the previous 25 years, some of which reflected negatively on the newspaper's ownership and management.