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The Antelope Valley Press, colloquially referred to as the Valley Press within its staffers and Antelope Valley residents, is a daily newspaper with emphasis on local news located in Palmdale, California USA. Its daily circulation is 26,065, with Sunday figures of 31,851 as of 2000.1 The Valley Press covers the fast growing Antelope Valley - especially the Lancaster/Palmdale Urbanized Area (a US Census Bureau defined term) and adjacent areas, including the upscale Los Angeles urban escapes of Acton and Agua Dulce.
Other adjacent areas the Valley Press covers on an as-needed basis include the Victor Valley, Bakersfield and the southern San Joaquin Valley, and the Greater Los Angeles Area. This is especially true for aerospace related stories and local high school and college level sports.
History
Begun in 1915 as the Palmdale Post,(then a weekly),2 the paper was owned for many decades by the Odett family until the 1980s. The William Odett family had father William and his son Lamont ("Monty") Odett Sr. running the day to day operations of The Yuma Morning Sun (Now The Yuma Sun) with William's new wife Mirian as part of the team in the circa 1925 to 1935 period in Yuma, Arizona.3 When the Morning Sun changed ownership in 1935, the Odetts came to Palmdale and began running what was then renamed the South Antelope Valley Press.
The paper later dropped the "South" part of its moniker, and became simply the Antelope Valley Press by the early 1960s. It remained a Thursday afternoon weekly until the late 1960s when a Sunday edition debuted. After the Valley's rapid spurt in population began in late 1983, a Tuesday edition was added, followed by Friday and Wednesday editions. The Saturday edition was added in the late 1980s and finally the Monday edition debuted around 1992, making the Antelope Valley Press a full-fledged daily newspaper - perhaps the first Mojave Desert California based newspaper to commence daily publishing with morning delivery.
As the Valley Press transitioned into daily publishing, the Odett family members - including "Monty" Jr. and Bill4 - gradually left the enterprise, eventually selling all interests to William Markham, the present publisher. The paper thus remains in family controlled hands, and has never been corporately owned or had nonlocal ownership.
Technology and editorial outlook
The Valley Press was famed locally for decades due to its peach colored newsprint while under the Odett family ownership. The paper in recent times has eliminated the peach newsprint due to expense. Today it is reportedly unobtainable, according to its staff.
Until around 1985, Valley Press reporters were still using electric typewriters in the course of performing assignments. Staffer Bill MacKenzie saw that the paper was in need of technological revamping, and researched a computer publishing system solution that was used for at least 12 years.5 That system has been recently replaced.6
A Valley Press legacy to the motorists of the Antelope Valley, as well as California and beyond is the Antelope Valley Freeway, which Lamont "Monty" Odett, Sr. championed in dealing with California state legislators in the 1950s and 1960s. Lamont Odett Vista Point - an Antelope Valley freeway rest area overlooking Palmdale - is named in his honor.
The paper, long Republican leaning, is changing under its current publisher to reflect the current population and opinion trends of newer Valley residents. As a result, it will often publish two opinion pieces side by side of opposing persuasions. The featured writers in them increasingly are local residents with strongly held views, which can become controversial at times.
Competitors in its market are the Los Angeles Daily News and the Los Angeles Times, both nonlocal Los Angeles based papers.
Sources and external links
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