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Award-winning journalist Tom Bolton joined Noozhawk as executive editor in 2012 after more than 20 years of guiding newsroom operations for newspapers at each end of Santa Barbara County.

From 2003 to early 2012, he served as vice president of news for Lee Central Coast Newspapers, leading the Santa Maria Times and supervising the Lompoc Record, the Santa Ynez Valley News and other local Lee publications.

He previously served as publisher and editor of the weekly South Coast Beacon, which he helped establish, and as executive editor and managing editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press, where he spent much of his career prior to its sale by The New York Times. He also has worked for The Tribune in San Luis Obispo County and as a private consultant.

Tom has a reputation throughout the region as a tough but fair editor, whose staffs consistently generate top-notch news coverage — in print and online. He has guided scores of investigative and in-depth projects on topics as varied as homelessness, wildfires, affordable housing, youth violence, earthquake risks, and the future of agriculture. Many of these projects have won awards at the state and national level.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from UC Santa Barbara, where he was editor in chief of The Daily Nexus student newspaper. He is a past board member of the California Society of Newspaper Editors, and also has been affiliated with the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the California Chicano News Media Association and other national media organizations.