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Long Beach Post

Long Beach Post logo
Type of site	Online newspaper
Available in	English
Owner	Cynthia Allen
URL	lbpost.com
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Optional
Launched	February 13, 2007 (2007-02-13)
Current status	Active

The Long Beach Post is a daily digital publication covering news, life, business, placemaking, food, sports, and LGBT issues in the city of Long Beach, California. The Long Beach Post is the largest news source owned and operated in the city of Long Beach, serving some 200,000 visitors per month.

History

Founded

The Long Beach Post was founded by Dr. Robert Garcia and Shaun Lumachi on February 13, 2007 with the goal of creating an archive of community information where community leaders and thinkers could gather, communicate, and participate. Garcia hoped that the site “could be a chronicle of the city that will live on forever.” The site was launched with 6 contributors—called “Posters”—with Garcia acting as editor and Lumachi running business operations. (https://casestudies.jrn.columbia.edu/casestudy/files/global/68/Long%20Beach%20Post%20Text.pdf)

LBPOSTsports.com

To continue growing readership LBPOSTsports.com was launched to cover sports in Long Beach ranging from high school basketball to collegiate tennis and everything in between. California State University, Long Beach graduates Mike Guardabascio and J.J. Fiddler were hired as co-managing editors and proceeded to produce quality sports coverage that boosted readership and earned both editors the Keith Cordes Award, given by the Long Beach Century Club for best promotion of the city through sports.(http://lbpost.com/ryan/8298)

Garcia steps down and the LBPost receives a new investor

In December 2008 Robert Garcia stepped down from his position with the Post to prevent a conflict of interest with his upcoming City Council election. Following this in early 2009 an investor committed $75,000 to the post for 20 percent ownership of the company, allowing for a redesign of the site and the hiring of a full-time ad salesperson for the Post. By the end of 2009, however, the investor’s contribution had dried out, forcing the Post to reabsorb LBPOSTsports.com to reduce costs in June 2010.

(https://casestudies.jrn.columbia.edu/casestudy/files/global/68/Long%20Beach%20Post%20Text.pdf) 

LBPost launches print edition

Having grown significantly to have a large digital and social reach in Long Beach, the Post ventured into print. On April 12, 2011 the Long Beach Post published its first print edition, distributing 25,000 copies to more than 200 locations in Long Beach. (http://lbpost.com/news/11438-long-beach-post-goes-print) The print edition was discontinued after the September 2013 issue.

Shaun Lumachi’s Death

On December 3, 2011 Long Beach Post founder Shaun Lumachi was killed in an automobile accident in Florida. (http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Long-Beach-Post-Founder-Was-33-135038573.html) On December 20th, Dezire Lumachi, Shaun’s wife, was named Interim Publisher while the Post restructured and reorganized. (http://www20.csueastbay.edu/news/2011/12/AlumnaDezire%20Lumachi-122111.html)

Current

Needed**

Controversies

City Pay

In May 2010 the Long Beach Post published a searchable database containing the names and salaries of government employees in an effort to provide transparency to the community. Some claimed this database was inappropriate and unethical as the people listed were private citizens along with public servants. Following the launch of City Pay, the Long Beach Post was informed by the City of Long Beach and informed that the data provided by the city contained both innacuracies and data which should not have been released under the scope of the Post's Public Records Act request.. The City Pay database was ultimately pulled offline. (http://www.lbreport.com/news/may10/pay1a.htm)

Robert Garcia

The ability of the Long Beach Post to cover city politics and other issues fairly and in an unbiased fasion, given that the publication was co-founded by former City Councilman and now-Mayor of Long Beach Robert Garcia has been questioned by both readers and competing news organization, who have accused the Post of biased reporting concerning Garcia and his political campaigns. The Long Beach Post has publicly denied allegations that Garcia still maintains any degree of influence over the operation, and has made multiple public statement at various times concerning the publication's commitment to preventing biased reporting, and prevent any conflicts of interest for Robert Garcia. (http://lbpost.com/news/1878 http://lbpost.com/news/2383-statement-on-the-transition-of-co-founder-robert-garcia)

Long Beach City Attorney Threatens Long Beach Post Over MedPot Coverage

Long Beach City Attorney Robert Shannon sent a letter to the Long Beach Post demanding that an article{ http://lbpost.com/news/2000000755-has-l-b-p-d-camera-smashing-exposed-the-city-to-more-medpot-lawsuits} covering a police raid on a medical marijuana dispensary in 2012 be retracted. No evidence was provided to substantiate claims made in the letter so the article remained published unchanged, while Shannon was contacted by the ACLU about the legitimacy and non-libelous nature of newspapers questioning the behavior of public officials. (http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/08/long_beach_city_attorney_threa.php)