Ah, the PD. The Press Democrat has been the most popular paper where I live, and I always figured that the quality of the news reporting, design, etc. was pretty good. Even now, it stands as one of the more popular papers in the state of California, I would say. As a print journalism major, I still read the paper whenever I go home.

The Press Democrat is owned by the New York TImes Company. Founded in 1897, the paper has a daily circulation of between 83,000 and 84,000. The headquarters are in Santa Rosa, California.

The paper was founded as the Sonoma Democrat, a combination of Ernest L. Finley's Evening Press and Thomas Thompson's Sonoma Democrat (which was originally created to be a voice for the Democratic party).

Sonoma County is primarily Democratic, with Ronald Reagan being the last Republican to win a majority there. While Republicans definitely comprise a good part of the area, The Press Democrat can certainly be seen as a more liberal newspaper. For instance, as there is a large number of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan from the area, there are a lot of articles about the negative effects and influences of the war. There were also a lot of commentary about former president George W. Bush, and I was hard-pressed to read about support for him.

I think there is a pretty good variety of news included in the paper; all of the different sections of the paper, including the main, local, sports, classifieds, real estate, arts, and other sections seem to have something for everyone. I like to read international news, and there are always pieces of the main section with news from every continent, even nations that I don't know much about. I'm not an expert on world affairs, but it seems pretty well-rounded to me, and I feel satisfied when I'm done with the paper. And of course, you have to have the local news, with spotlights on students, major contributors to the community, and more. It's always nice to read about people that you know pretty well when they're not in the obituary section.

Unfortunately, the real estate section is pretty depressing, but only because house prices are so expensive in Sonoma County.

The layout of the paper is very aesthetic and practical. I love the font and the color schemes (usually blue and grey for the main headlines)... They make it simple to read the text and find what you like.

Overall, the paper is a good read, with a good balance of international news and local news. I would say that people with a deep interest in international affairs may be disappointed, but I think that the majority of readers in the county will be happy with The Press Democrat.