The California Journal Digital Archive
California Journal
Making four decades of California political reporting freely searchable for research and education.
Making four decades of California political reporting freely searchable for research and education.
From 1970 to 2005, the California Journal magazine reported on an era of dramatic change in California State government and politics and published this coverage in 419 monthly issues. Today, we are in the initial stages of applying advance search methodologies to this collection, creating a unique digital library for anyone interested in reading about or researching this transformative period in California history.
The permission to publish is courtesy of the Donald and Beverly Gerth Special Collections and University Archives, California State University, Sacramento, which owns the collection and is granting permission to make the reporting in these issues available as a digital archive.
With an initial grant to begin the project, our commitment is to secure resources needed to make the full California Journal collection widely available for research and educational use to the public through libraries, educational institutions and Open California’s Capitol Weekly website.
The California Journal provided a comprehensive and authoritative record of the events, issues and personalities that shaped the state’s future.
These decades ushered in fundamental changes: the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), followed by major changes in a broad range of environmental policies; legislative and political reforms such as the two-year session, term limits and creation of an independent redistricting commission; mental health care; energy deregulation; tax policies such as the landmark 1978 Proposition 13.
With highly respected writers, editors and advisors committed to insightful, non-partisan journalism.
The Journal’s quality reporting begins with editors Ed Salzman, Bob Fairbanks, Rich Zeiger, A.G. Block, Cindy Craft and Dave Lesher, and includes notable writers such as Lou Cannon, Richard Reeves, Mary Ellen Leary, Leo Rennert, Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, James Richardson, Steve Scott, John Jacobs, Dana Wilkie, Susan Rasky, Max Boot, George Skelton, Sigrid Bathen, Dan Weintraub, Dan Walters, Greg Lucas, Robert Gunnison, Mark Sandalow, Marc Reisner, Rebecca LaVally, Mark Arax, Mark Simon, Carl Cannon, Claudia Buck and Tony Quinn.
From the beginning, an esteemed group of advisors generously contributed academic, government, political and non-partisan perspectives, including Eugene C. Lee, Carma Leigh, Anne Rudin, Tom Bradley, Bernard Hyink, Rosellen Kershaw, Norm Mineta, Pete Wilson, Bill Hauck, Chip Nielsen, Joanne Kozberg and Lou Cannon.
The California Journal published 419 monthly issues across four decades. The covers below are a sample — one or two from each decade — to show the range of the magazine’s coverage. Preliminary work to digitize the collection has begun; click any sample to open that issue.
419 monthly issues across four decades — the complete run now being prepared for the searchable archive.
The first stage is complete — the archive has been digitized and made machine-readable.
Every issue of the California Journal has been scanned, cleaned, and run through modern optical character recognition, converting four decades of print into searchable text. This foundational stage is done. The next stage — building the AI-powered search interface that lets anyone explore this material — is the work now being planned. The figures below reflect what the digitization stage has produced.
The California Journal is coming soon to the CSUS Library.
When the project is complete, this is how the archive will work: ask a plain-English question and get an answer drawn from across all 419 issues, with every claim cited to the original reporting. The example below is an illustrative preview of that capability.
Click a magazine cover to read the relevant article.
© 2026 Donald and Beverly Gerth Special Collections & University Archives, University Library, Sacramento State. Used with permission.
This text has been generated through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and may contain inaccuracies. Users should consult the original source material for verification, a link to which is provided within this HTML reproduction. If you find content within this repository that you believe infringes your copyright or otherwise violates the law, please contact Sac State Gerth Special Collections & University Archives at lib-scua@csus.edu, and we will carefully review the material and take appropriate action.
Illustrative preview of the planned interface. When built, it will search all 419 issues — 12.2 million words.
From the first conversations in 1969 to the transfer of the archive to Sacramento State — a chronology of the people and moments that shaped the California Journal.
Explore the California Journal history →
