Ken Doctor is a veteran American journalist and media analyst with a 48-year career spanning alternative weeklies, monthly magazines, newsroom and newspaper management, and digital innovation, including 21 years with Knight Ridder. His early professional experience includes serving as publisher and editor of the Eugene, Oregon-based Willamette Valley Observer alternative weekly from 1975 to 1982. Known for his deep dives into news business models and the decline of local newspapers, Doctor is a frequent contributor to Nieman Lab and Nieman Reports, analyzing the economics and future of journalism. A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), where he first arrived as a 17-year-old student during the school's third year of existence around 1967-1968, Doctor maintains strong ties to his alma mater. He has volunteered for UCSC for 15 years, served on the UCSC Alumni Council and as its president, and currently serves as president of the UC Santa Cruz Foundation. In November 2020, he founded Lookout Santa Cruz, a digital newspaper based in Santa Cruz, California, under parent company Lookout Local, which generates revenue from philanthropic support, advertising, and online subscriptions. The publication won a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2024 for its coverage of the 2022-2023 California floods.