On April 3, 1886, the first edition of the
Selma Irrigator was published by Walter T. Lyon. A rival paper called the
Selma Enterprise was first published on June 23, 1888. It was founded by editor S.J. Mathews and C.J. Walker, with backing from Jacob E. Whitson, who used it to promote his failed bid for State Assembly. The Enterprise Publishing Company was formed in 1889 and was managed by several people Mrs.V.I. Willis and her husband L.M. Willis bought the paper in October 1891 from H.B. Watson, and were the
Enterprise's first long term owners. He went on to publish the
Irrigator for over three decades. In 1899, the Willis' leased the
Enterprise to John W. Aiken and Frank H. Gill. Aiken bought the paper a year later. Around that time Adelsbach was offered $10,000 in gold to start a liquor paper (a paper supporting saloons' interests), an offer which he refused. In 1912, Adelsbach was severely beaten by C.H. Brynelson for an editorial comment Adelsbach made about Brynelson. A year later Allyn O. Taylor took control of the
Enterprise. L.F. Atwater died in May 1920. Telford Work, owner of the
Parlier Progress and co-owner of the
Del Rey Enterprise, then bought the
Enterprise in August 1920 from M.L. Atwater, son of the former deceased owner. In 1926, Lowell Clark Pratt bought the
Enterprise from Work. In 1927, Edward S. Byfield bought the
Irrigator from Vanderburgh. That May, the two bought the
Parlier Progress, and the
Fowler Ensign in 1930. In August 1931, Pratt gained national attention for an article he wrote criticizing a judge who Pratt thought handled a case with prejudice against
Filipino defendants. A small race riot broke out on a vineyard and a judge fined seven Filipino men $10 while giving three white men
suspended jail sentences. The judge cited Pratt for contempt of court for him writing an editorial arguing all defendants should have been treated equally. The charges were late dropped. During
World War II, Pratt wrote in support of
Japanese Americans who were discriminated against. He spoke to a state senate committee to defend the right of Japanese Americans to return to their homes after the
internment of Japanese Americans ceased. Pratt went on to work as an assistant journalism professor at
San Jose State College and was the school's first director of public relations. He also wrote a book on the two decades he edited the paper called "A Weekly Miracle: How a California newspaper coped with the Great Depression, World War II and the evacuation of Japanese-Americans." Brock won the Justus F. Craemer Newspaper Executive of the Year Award from the California Press Foundation in 1984. His son James Brock, who was also a publisher of the
Enterprise, won the same award in 1999. James Brock sold the
Recorder and
Enterprise in 2000 to
Pulitzer, Inc., along with a free advertiser called the
South County News. Pultizer was acquired by
Lee Enterprises in 2005. Lee combined the
Selma Enterprise with the
Kingsburg Recorder in July 2015, consolidating printing operations at the
Santa Maria Times printing location. In 2020, Lee sold the
Enterprise and several other papers in Central California to Santa Maria California News Media Inc., a newly formed company led by a group of Canadian newspaper executives. In 2025, Lowell Clark Pratt was inducted into the California Newspaper Hall of Fame. ==References==