Founded in 1869 by District Attorney Walter Murray in what is now Mission Plaza, The Tribune is the oldest continuously operating business in the city of San Luis Obispo and one of the oldest enterprises in San Luis Obispo County.

The Tribune was the first newspaper to report that a Japanese submarine sank a U.S. oil tanker off the California coast on Dec. 23, 1941. The story was then suppressed by the secretary of war after it was also printed in The Cambrian and San Francisco Call.

San Luis Obispo County is located on California's Central Coast, approximately halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and is home to about 276,443 people, according to a 2013 estimate.

Subscribers are likely to be well-educated, affluent, slightly older and more white collar than the market average.

The newspaper supports numerous community events and organizations, including the California Mid-State Fair, Arroyo Grande Strawberry Festival, the City to the Sea Half-Marathon, Festival Mozaic, the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, I Madonnari, the Paso Robles Wine Festival, Cal Poly Athletics, the San Luis Obispo Symphony and the Atascadero Wine Festival, in addition to many other smaller community events. The Tribune is also very involved with organizations such as the Food Bank, The San Luis Obispo Literacy Council, the Alzheimer's Association, the Downtown Association and the American Cancer Society. Many of The Tribune's employees support the community as members of local service clubs such as Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce.