Noozhawk covers Santa Barbara County local news with a staff of professional journalists, columnists, interns and community contributors. Our dedicated sales and marketing staff manages advertising, community partnerships and outreach. 

Noozhawk was created in 2007 by founder and publisher Bill Macfadyen. It continues to be locally and independently owned by Macfadyen and editor-in-chief Tom Bolton, who are both longtime Santa Barbara County journalists.

Noozhawk expanded its coverage beyond the South Coast (Goleta, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Summerland, Carpinteria) to the rest of the county in 2014, including Santa Maria, Lompoc and the Santa Ynez Valley.

It has dedicated reporting and editing staff in the South County and the North County.

Noozhawk averages 1.49 million page views and 391,150 unique visitors every month as of 2026. Our community of engaged readers regularly visits the website, reads our newsletters, follows us on social media and financially supports us as part of the Hawks Club membership program. 

Noozhawk reporters and editors are committed to publishing fair, accurate and relevant local news that is available to read without a paywall.

Noozhawk does not make political endorsements and its reporters do not share personal opinions in news coverage.

Noozhawk publishes commentaries and letters to the editor, which are labeled as opinion pieces.