The Press Democrat
Emily Paulsen DeBacker, PHR, serves as the Chief People and Culture Officer at The Press Democrat since January 2009, where responsibilities include managing HR for over 265 employees across multiple media outlets. Prior to this role, Emily held the position of Assistant Vice President and Human Resources Manager at PAUL FINANCIAL, LLC from February 2004 to January 2009, overseeing HR for more than 325 employees across five locations in eight states and conducting compensation analysis. Emily holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Sonoma State University and has completed coursework through NCHRA Study Course and PASCO.
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The Press Democrat
The very first newspaper in Santa Rosa, the parent of today's Press Democrat, was begun in 1857, just three years after Santa Rosa was chosen as the seat of Sonoma County and seven years after California became a part of the United States. Called the Sonoma Democrat this newspaper was a four-page weekly. Its name reflected the politicsof the Santa Rosa and Russian River valleys, which were settled in the 1840s and '50s by farmers from Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. The founding publisher was Alpheus Russell, a merchant with some newspaper experience who came to open a general store on Third Street. John Taylor, a prosperous rancher south of the new town, encouraged Russell to establish the paper, giving him a five-dollar gold piece for the first subscription. At the end of a year, Russell sold the paper to printer E.R. Budd, who sold it again in 1860. The new owner was Thomas Thompson, a young Virginian who had edited Petaluma's Sonoma County Journal five years earlier at the age of 17.