| The Mendocino Beacon | |
| Type: | Weekly newspaper |
| Format: | Broadsheet |
| Owners: | MediaNews Group, Digital First Media |
| Publisher: | K.C. Meadows [1] |
| Editor: | Robin Epley |
| Circulation: | 2,400[2] |
| Headquarters: | Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, California |
The Mendocino Beacon is a weekly newspaper for the community of Mendocino, California, owned by MediaNews Group.[3]
The Mendocino Beacon was founded on October 6, 1877 by W. H. Meacham and William Heeser,[4] [5] [6] an immigrant from Germany who also founded the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and three other local newspapers in Kibesillah, Rockport, and Westport.[7] It succeeded the Star, a local newspaper that had been founded previously by M. J. C. Galvin.[6] In an 1878 catalog of North American newspapers the Beacon was advertised as "an independent and vigorous weekly journal, published at a point of rising importance as a place of shipping and trade."[8] From 1975 to 1977 it was published under an alternative name, the Mendocino Coast Beacon.[9]
In 2000, the newspaper offices moved from Mendocino to Fort Bragg, ten miles north of Mendocino, and consolidated with the offices of the Fort Bragg Advocate-News.[10]
In the 2009 California Newspaper Publishers Association's "Better Newspaper Contest", the Mendocino Beacon won first place in its circulation category for a business/financial story, for a story on Heritage House by Frank Hartzell.[11] It has also won similar awards in previous years.[12] [13] [14] [15]