About Us

Sonomanews.com and Sonomamag.com are the web URLs for SONOMA, the web affiliate dedicated to all things Sonoma and published by The Sonoma Index-Tribune and its family of products and services, which include ShopSonoma.net, Sonomaindextribune.com, sonomamag.com, SONOMA magazine, and Sonoma Job Network

Independently owned and operated

Sonomanews.com/Sonoma Index-Tribune is an independent, 132-year-old locally owned and operated media company, covering all things Sonoma in print and online. Sonoma Daily News is a daily news bulletin linked to SONOMA and emailed to subscribers seven days a week. SONOMA is updated frequently, sometimes two or three times a day, and whenever there is a major breaking news story.

The Sonoma Index-Tribune is a twice-weekly (Tuesday and Friday), 8,000 circulation newspaper covering Sonoma Valley, Jack London's famous "Valley of the Moon." Located 40 miles north of San Francisco in Northern California's premier Wine Country, Sonoma Valley is 18 miles long, extending from the San Pablo Bay north to Kenwood. The City of Sonoma, built around a green, tree-filled "Plaza" created by Sonoma's founder General Mariano Vallejo, is the Valley's cultural and business center.

All three products, SONOMA, Sonoma Daily News, and The Sonoma Index-Tribune together reach a regular monthly audience in excess of 220,000 (readers, subscribers, viewers, and visitors.)  Our company also publishes SONOMA Magazine quarterly as an up-scale, lifestyle publication printed on magazine stock in full process color. It is circulated to paid subscribers, sold at news counters (cover price $6.95) and distributed to guests of top hotels in San Francisco and Sonoma Valley, and distributed nationally in bookstores, supermarkets and other retail magazine stand locations via Kable Distribution Services. Circulation 15,000 copies. Many articles, photos and features of SONOMA Magazine are also included as part of SONOMA, the website. And it is also available in a complete digital edition.

ShopSonoma.net links to our local Shop Sonoma channel, featuring local stores offering their products and services. It also includes a complete and searchable local business directory, complete with map directions.

Our family business has served Sonoma since 1879.

Volume 1, Number 1, the first issue of The Sonoma Index was published here in Sonoma April 17, 1879. In 1884, Harry Granice, great-grandfather of current I-T publishers Bill and Jim Lynch, purchased the paper and renamed it The Sonoma Index-Tribune. The newspaper has remained in the family ever since. Granice died in 1915, and his daughters Celeste (known as Celie) and her sister Ramona took over the business. Ramona, who was the youngest, eventually married and stopped working at the paper, but Celie, along with her husband, Walter Murphy, ran the family business until 1946, when their nephew (and Ramona's son) Robert Lynch took over the I-T. He passed away in September of 2003 and his sons Bill and Jim took over the leadership of the company.

"We're proud to still be a family-owned, independent, local newspaper in an era when most newspapers are owned by big chain corporations. Jim and I were born here, attended local public schools, and live here. Our children were born and raised here. We love this community, and our blood is a rich mix of Sonoma Valley wine and printers ink," said Bill Lynch, I-T editor in chief and publisher, who celebrated his 41st full time year with the company in 2010. "If you count the fact that Jim and I both worked here part time since we were in grade school through college, both of us have more than 100 years combined here at the I-T."

"Today our company is more than just a twice-weekly newspaper. We're a 21st-century communications company with several well-read digital products and a nationally circulated magazine," Lynch said. "The traditional community newspaper, The Sonoma Index-Tribune is still the family's "flagship" publication, but we are also very proud of SONOMA Magazine and our SONOMA (sonomanews.com) website. No other website has as much information about Sonoma Valley than SONOMA," Lynch stated.

The name SONOMA is magic and known world wide. It is the "real wine country," Jack London's mystical 'Valley of the Moon.' It is an international destination, rich in early California history, where visitors and residents enjoy the delicious, serene and salubrious climate that provides a lifestyle like no other. - all of it, just 40 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. This is the spirit and heart that SONOMA Magazine captures in scintillating prose and vivid photography.

Sonomanews.com is the main news website, and is constantly changing and evolving as digital-age technology changes. In addition we operate sonomamag.com, our website for SONOMA Magazine.