The Santa Barbara News-Press bankruptcy trustee plans to sell the newspaper’s website and social media accounts to a Malta-based company for $250,000, or to a higher bidder if one comes forward.

The proposed sale is to Weyaweya Ltd. for the newspress.com and sbnewspress.com domain names; content of the website; social media accounts on Facebook and X; and the registered mark Santa Barbara News-Press.

The court hearing is scheduled for April 9 in Santa Barbara bankruptcy court.

Selling the online assets would pay for some administrative costs and creditor claims, argue bankruptcy trustee Jerry Namba and his attorney, Michael D’Alba. They’re asking a judge to approve the sale and the hearing for overbidders.

Wendy McCaw’s Ampersand Publishing, parent company of the News-Press, declared bankruptcy on July 21. That’s the same day the newspaper stopped publishing to the website and told all employees their jobs were eliminated.

The website went offline shortly afterward, but two former employees say they have log-ins for the accounts and backups of the content.

They’ll only give it to the bankruptcy trustee if they get paid, according to court documents.

Namba reached settlements with longtime News-Press manager Yolanda Apodaca and with Philip Kiner, who maintained the website. Namba and D’Alba said settlements were the best option given the circumstances.

“Kiner has a copy of the content of the Debtor’s website but will not return it absent payment,” court documents say. He claims he incurred expenses maintaining the content since the bankruptcy petition was filed.

“Apodaca has possession of the logons needed to control the Debtor’s website but will not return them absent payment,” court documents state.

Apodaca disputes that the information belongs to the bankruptcy estate, possibly because the News-Press required her to pay for the domain names with her own money and then get reimbursed, D’Alba wrote in court documents.

Kiner will get about $4,500, and Apodaca will get about $9,500, which is half of her claim as a bankruptcy creditor, plus two weeks of her News-Press salary, according to the proposed settlements.

“Even though Apodaca no longer has access to the Debtor’s former offices, Apodaca has been able to independently re-acquire knowledge of the information needed to maintain the Debtor’s website,” according to court records.

In bankruptcy filings, McCaw identified Apodaca as the person who had the business’ books of account and records.

In addition, in bankruptcy court hearings, McCaw named Apodaca multiple times as the person who might know the answer to a question about News-Press finances. McCaw herself told attorneys she did not know much about the newspaper’s operations.

Questions About Bankruptcy Assets and Newspaper Archives

Namba says he doesn’t have full access to the business’ books and records because he can’t get into the former News-Press buildings that McCaw owns, according to court records.

In 2014, McCaw transferred the News-Press buildings at 715 Anacapa St. and 725 S. Kellogg Ave. into separate LLCs that she controls, a move Namba and his attorneys argue was a “sham” done to avoid paying creditors.

Without the properties included, the bankruptcy petition lists few assets: the newspaper’s physical archives, the online assets, some artwork and office furniture, and printing plant equipment.

Ampersand Publishing and the News-Press owe millions of dollars to former employees and creditors ranging from vendors to subscribers to utility companies.

The proposed online asset sale includes the website content, but at the time of the bankruptcy filing, online archives went back only to 2019.

McCaw says she isn’t sure where the newspaper’s physical archives are, or how far back they go.

However, former employees have said there historically were storage areas with bound copies of newspapers, story clips and photographs in the downtown Santa Barbara newsroom building.

It’s unclear what condition they’re in, and whether they were moved to the Kellogg facility when staff moved there in April 2023.

Some of the News-Press’ historical archives are documented at the Santa Barbara Public Library with digital access and microfilm.