Lobdell, who thought the paper was about to go under before the awards ceremony, initially took it as a last gasp.
“We were thinking, ‘Well, at least we went out with a bang,’” he said.
Sales began to pick up, however, so much so that Marble and Lobdell started a series of community papers, known as Our Times, throughout Southern California. Those papers folded when the Tribune Co. purchased the Times in 2000, but the Daily Pilot persevered.
This year, the paper that started on an entrepreneur’s $700 hit its first century mark. And it’s been the spirit of writers, editors and publishers, more than wealth or circulation, that’s carried it through rough times.
