The most populous state in the U.S., California has been home to several conventions. Learn all about the Golden State right here.

1. California Ed Code 48907
2. Journalism Education Association of Northern California (JEANC)
3. Southern California Journalism Education Association (SCJEA)
4. Cal Press Foundation
5. CalMatters
6. Most frequent state visited for NHSJC – has hosted national conventions in San Francisco, Anaheim, L.A. and San Diego
7. San Francisco Chronicle has won six Pulitzer Prizes
8. Los Angeles Times has won 51 Pulitzer Prizes
9. San Jose Mercury News has won two Pulitzer Prizes
10. USC Annenberg
11. Thirteen news websites from California schools have been recognized with the SNO Distinguished Site award
12. California has 23 student publications on NSPA’s Pacemaker 100 list
13. Often the highest membership state in JEA
14. Famous journalists from California include Rachel Maddow, Hunter S. Thompson …
15. Palo Alto H.S. – highest number of student publications produced simultaneously: 13 in 2023
16. Journalism Preservation Act
17. At least four husband-wife journalism teacher/adviser teams at the same time: Chrasta, McCarthy, Nichols, Satterthwaite
18. Was the only state to have two state directors for JEA (divided geographically)
19. Adviser Protection Act
20. Home to Google
21. Home to Facebook/Meta
22. Seven H.L. Hall National Yearbook Adviser of the Year winners are from California
23. At least seven Journalist of the Year winners are from California
24. Ten schools from California have received the First Amendment Press Freedom Award
25. The FAPFA logo was designed by a four-year California student journalist, Gloria Guo from The Harker School in San Jose.
26. The 2023 JEA Administrator of the Year is from California (Monta Vista), as are the 1970 (Villa Park), 2016 (The Harker School), 2018 (Bear River) and 2019 (Convent of the Sacred Heart San Francisco) winners
27. Two California schools have won JEA’s National Journalism Quiz Bowl, including three-time winner Torrey Pines High School.
28. The 2011 Aspiring Young Journalist was from California, attending St. John the Evangelist School in Encinitas.
29. California is the only state to have two of the top ten designated media markets: Los Angeles (#2) and San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose (#10). In all, California has 11 of the nation’s media markets, comprising more than 12 million viewers in those markets alone.
30. California has the most universities that offer a Bachelors or Masters degree in journalism.
31. Home to YouTube
32. Number of CA schools named after journalists: Daniel Pearl Magnet School (Los Angeles), Frank Del Olmo (Los Angeles), Jose Antonio Vargas (Mountain View), Ida B. Wells (San Francisco)
33. Streets named after journalists: Chauncey Bailey (Oakland), Jamal Khashoggi (L.A.)
34. Rolling Stone magazine founded in San Francisco in 1967.
35. San Francisco Chronicle was the first newspaper west of the Mississippi to report Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
36. Famous writers who started as journalists: John Steinbeck (born in Salinas), Jack London (born in San Francisco)
37. Photographer Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco
38. California Shield Law
39. California Ed Code 48950
40. The Mercury News (San Jose) was founded before the NY Times, in 1851.
41. Once the largest newspaper chain in the world, Hearst Communications, was founded in San Francisco.
42. California Scholastic Journalism Initiative
43. Journalism Education Association of Community Colleges
44. Jostens Publishing in Visalia
45. One JEA president from California (Rocklin)
46. JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Director from California (Los Angeles)
47. Five California advisers have served JEA as state director (including two in Michigan)
48. The Sacramento Bee was founded in 1857 as The Daily Bee
49. California Scholastic Press Association’s summer workshop, founded in 1951, claims to be the longest continually operating workshop of its kind in the country
50. California has 12 people credentialed through JEA’s critique training program
51. 11 mentors
52. 26 mentees
53. More H.L. Hall National Yearbook Adviser of the Year winners than any other state.
54. The most earthquake coverage.
55. The most surfing coverage.
56. Eight California advisers have won the National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year, including the first, in 1960.
57. Currently has 41 individuals certified as CJE with membership and certification in good standing.
58. Currently has 11 individuals certified as MJE with membership and certification in good standing.
59. The Sacramento Bee has won six Pulitzer Prizes
60. Fifteen Medal of Merit winners have been from California.
61. The state’s first newspaper, The Californian, was printed in Monterey on cigarette paper.
62. By the early 1870s, San Francisco had 46 registered print shops including six power press shops alongside three typefounders. These numbers continued to grow over the rest of the century until San Francisco was a print/literary hub in the Western United States.
63. California – especially San Francisco – has been a bustling printing industry for women starting as early as the 1860s. In fact, the city became home to the Women’s Co-operative Printing Union in the 1870s, which produced women-run publications until a fire destroyed the establishment shortly before the earthquake in 1906.
64. Media Museum of Northern California
65. The Paley Center for Media
66. Los Angeles’s first paper, La Estrella de Los Angeles or The Los Angeles Star, began publishing in May, 1851, also half in Spanish (until 1855).
67. The Mountain Democrat, located in Placerville, is the oldest newspaper in California still printing, boasting continuous publication since 1851.
68. The state has 16 media markets, including the second largest (Los Angeles).
69. California was the first state to host an in-person National High School Journalism Convention after the pandemic.
70. At least five Carl Towley winners are from California.
71. Seventeen student newspapers from California have been inducted into NSPA’s Hall of Fame.
72. Eleven yearbooks from California have been inducted into NSPA’s Hall of Fame.
73. Two magazines from California have been inducted into NSPA’s Hall of Fame.
74. Steve Jobs
75. Disneyland
76. Music festivals: Coachella, Outside Lands, BottleRock, Stagecoach
77. Most Major League Baseball teams: San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland A’s, San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
78. California has 23 commercial airports, including two of the nation’s busiest: LAX and SFO.
79. In the movie “Anchorman,” Ron Burgundy is the famous anchorman for a local San Diego television station, fictional KVWN Channel 4.
80. The San Diego Union-Tribune has won four Pulitzer Prizes.
81. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 873, which requires the state to add media literacy to curriculum frameworks for English language arts, science, math and history-social studies in 2024.
82. The Hollywood Bowl is the largest outdoor amphitheater in the United States
83. California is home to the “Avocado Capital of the World.”
84. In 1964, San Francisco’s cable cars were named the first moving National Historic Landmark. The San Francisco cable cars are the only ones still operating in a U.S city.
85. California is home to the world’s largest tree,General Sherman, and it lives in Sequoia National Park. At nearly 275 feet tall it has a circumference of 102 feet.
86. Death Valley is the hottest, driest and lowest National Park in the country.
87. California is the birthplace of the internet. In 1969, the first ARPANET message was sent from a UCLA site.
88. The Los Angeles Times is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, with a daily readership of 1.4 million and 2.4 million on Sunday, more than 36 million unique latimes.com visitors monthly and a combined print and online local weekly audience of 4.3 million.
89. One President of the United States has been from California: Richard Nixon.
90. The current Vice President of the United States is from California: Kamala Harris.
91. Four U.S. Supreme Court justices have been from California.
92. With over 39 million people (according to July 2022 Census Bureau estimates), California is the nation’s most populous state—its population is much larger than that of second-place Texas (30 million) and third-place Florida (22 million).
93. To date, 32 Californians have won an Academy Award.
94. California is a great state for cultural diversity; one out of every four Californians was not born in the United States.
95. Almonds are California’s top export. Most of the state’s almonds are grown in the Central Valley, which is considered the world’s almond capital.
96. It’s the first state to reach $1 trillion in GDP.
97. California is a hub of innovation; wetsuits, skateboards, Barbie dolls, Apple products and Frisbee all originated in this state.
98. Blue jeans were invented in California. Levi Strauss and business partner Jacob Davis introduced jeans to the world in 1873. Initially worn by factory workers, miners, and farmers, jeans eventually became a staple and made their way into closets around the nation and beyond.
99. California is the only state that has hosted both the summer and winter Olympics. The city of Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics, while Squaw Valley hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics.
100. State scholastic journalism conventions took place in San Jose in the ‘80s and early ‘90s before NorCal and SoCal groups began hosting their own smaller events. The first formalized statewide journalism event in 25 years will take place in January 2024 in the form of an adviser teach-in hosted at Cal Poly’s Department of Journalism in San Luis Obispo.