New owners for The Malibu Times

Dec 1, 2021

Publisher of weeklies in San Luis Obispo County, 13 Stars Media has acquired the assets of The Malibu Times, the newspaper reported.

Hayley and Nicholas Mattson, publishers since 2019 of the Paso Robles Press and The Atascadero News, acquired the Malibu operation from Arnold and Karen York, who had owned it since 1987. Terms were not disclosed.

"We believe in print and in the history of newspapers to keep communities together, and we value their place within community," Hayley Mattson told California News Publishers Association.

Atascadero will be the home office for production and administration, she said. The Malibu office has moved with the sale of the former owners' building. Newsroom staff will continue in Malibu, she said.

Arnold York, a former member of the CNPA Board of Directors, told CNPA this week that he plans to continue column-writing.

"I'll miss the structure," he said of the publishers' longtime weekly routine. "I don't have anything I HAVE to do."

The Yorks had been only the second owners for The Malibu Times, which was founded in 1946.