Noozhawk founder and c0-owner Bill Macfadyen pulls back the curtain on the inner-workings of Noozhawk and discusses his popular column, BizHawk, and the role of the publication’s daily and evening newsletters.

“We found that our readers want both the AM and PM report,” Macfadyen said. “They have sky-high open rates and interactions.”

Macfadyen also breaks down the recent redesign of the online new website, and the pivoting to Newspack, which has created a sleek new interface for readers.

Macfadyen said analytics and web traffic have increased since the recent redesign.

“One of the things we are trying to achieve is displaying more of the broad content that we have,” Macfadyen said.

In response to a question from Santa Barbara Talks host Josh Molina, Macfadyen also discussed the politics of Noozhawk, or the lack of it, which is intentional.

“Readers don’t come to Noozhawk for opinion; that’s been clear from the very start,” Macfadyen said. “They come for news. Our reporters are really good and leave opinions out of their stories.”

Noozhawk has some local columnists whom the paper commissions to write about topics from a personalized perspective, and that readers enjoy that.

He said that Noozhawk in September dropped most of its non-local syndicated columnists, mostly for traffic purposes, and only chose to keep Joe Guzzardi, who writes about immigration issues.

“I don’t always agree with his stuff, but he is the only person out there who is writing about immigration with any kind of regularity,” Macfadyen said. “It’s an important issue, especially here in California.

Macfadyen also chimes in on some recent local news topics, including the La Cumbre Plaza housing specific plan and the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments’ decision to not fund the city of Santa Barbara’s project.

“I also have grown children, one of whom he and his family live in Santa Barbara, and I want them to stay and I want my other two kids to be able to move back,” Macfadyen said. “Housing is a serious issue and has been for a long time.”

He said the community needs to have the discussion about housing, and how much we want and how to get there.

“We’re never going to achieve consensus, but maybe we’ll have a better idea of what our community thinks, not what a developer thinks, or a government official thinks, or an advocate, but this is what our community needs to happen,” Macfadyen said.

The entrepreneur also talks about the success of the BizHawk column, the potential for more newsletters and his views on the city of Goleta.

“I do always get asked, ‘You live in Montecito, Noozhawk is based in Santa Barbara, what’s your interest in Goleta,” Macfadyen said. “My interest in Goleta is twofold: One, it’s a fantastic community. Noozhawk’s core demographic is Goleta, top to bottom, it’s just great.”

He also said Goleta has the best weather in the world, but watching it incorporate has also been a thing of beauty.

“The opportunity to watch Goleta as a city grow is fascinating,” Macfadyen said. “That’s never going to happen again in my lifetime. I am never going to have the opportunity to see a new city birth itself, and grow and go through all of those challenges.

Consider a donation to this podcast by clicking here. Subscribe to Santa Barbara Talks by clicking here. Josh Molina has been a journalist in Santa Barbara for 20 years. He also covered City Hall for the San Jose Mercury News. In addition to working as a reporter at Noozhawk, he teaches journalism at Cal State University, Northridge and Santa Barbara City College. Please subscribe to his You Tube channel for more content.