Lake County Record-Bee

In 1872, J.B. Baccus, Jr., founded The Cloverdale Bee in Cloverdale, California.^[2] A year later he moved his equipment to Lakeport and relaunched his paper as the Lake County Bee.^[3] The business had several other proprietors in the following years and eventually came to be owned by A.C. Jackson.^[4]

In 1875, A.A.R. Utting, who previously owned the Napa Reporter, established the Lake Democrat. His health failed and he sold it in 1879 to John R. Cook, who a year later merged the business with Jackson's to form the Lakeport Bee-Democrat, which the two operated together.^[4] A fire destroyed the paper's office in 1883^[5] and Jackson retired a few months later.^[6] The name was then changed to the Lakeport Democrat.^[4]

In 1921, Dr. W.R. Prather bought the paper, by then renamed back to the Bee, from G.E. Nichols. It was then managed by his son-in-law William "Bill" Bolce.^[7] In 1925, Sidney Roche and E.J. Moore founded the Lakeport Record in Upper Lake.^[8] The two soon acquired the Clear Lake Press at Lakeport, which ceased following a fire in the town. In 1926, they replaced it with a new paper called The Lakeport Press.^[9] The Press and Record were later consolidated to form the Lakeport Press-Record.^[10]

Bolce operated the Bee for almost 20 years until selling in 1940 it to Moore.^[11] In 1956, Roland R. Johnsrud became the new owner and he consolidated the Bee and the Press-Record in 1961 to form the Lake County Record-Bee. At the time the Press and Record had a circulation of 1,300 and the Bee had 1,600. The editorial team consisted of three who wrote for both papers.^[12] In 1981, the Times Publishing Company, owner of the Erie Times-News, bought the paper from Johnsrud.^[13] In 2001, the Record-Bee came under the ownership of MediaNews Group. At that time the paper had 7,300 subscribers.^[14]

• Official website