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Tucson Newspapers (Tucson, AZ)


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The Arizona Daily Star and Tucson Citizen are Tucson’s two daily newspapers. The Star is Tucson’s morning paper, available Monday – Sunday, and the Citizen is Tucson’s afternoon paper, available Monday – Saturday.

History of the Star
Since the publication of the first Daily Bulletin in 1877 and through its later revival as the Arizona Tri-Weekly Star, the Weekly Star and finally the Arizona Daily Star, the Star has diligently served the community’s daily news needs. After 34 years of ownership by the Pulitzer Publishing Co., the Star became a Lee Enterprises paper with Lee’s acquisition of Pulitzer in 2005.

History of the Citizen
The Tucson Citizen was born in 1870 and is Tucson’s oldest continuously published newspaper. The Citizen began as a weekly, was converted to a daily in 1879 and, except for a brief move to Florence soon after it was founded, has been a part of Tucson life from frontier days to space age and beyond. The Citizen is currently owned by Gannett Co. Inc., the nation’s largest newspaper group. Gannett publishes 85 daily newspapers in the United States, including USA TODAY.

The relationship between the Star, Citizen and Tucson Newspapers
In 1940, the joint operating agreement (JOA) was born when Citizen owner William A. Small and Arizona Daily Star owner William R. Mathews agreed to create Tucson Newspapers Inc., a common agency to handle production, advertising and distribution for both publications. Today, Tucson Newspapers also oversees three major local websites – azstarnet.com, online home of the Star; tucsoncitizen.com, online home of the Citizen; and tucson.com – as well as a variety of niche products. It is a partnership equally owned by Gannett and Lee. Each newsroom sets its own editorial policy as well as newsgathering and newsroom practices.

News factoid: Tucson Newspapers making history
In 1965, the owner of the Citizen exercised a clause in the JOA agreement to buy the Star. That purchase was challenged by the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division. Moreover, that challenge and a related investigation led the Department to file a lawsuit claiming that the Tucson JOA itself (and by implication all other JOAs across the country) violated federal antitrust laws. A trial was held and both the JOA and the acquisition were blocked, a decision that the United States Supreme Court upheld several years later.

The issue was argued for five years; newspaper publishers and owners sought relief in Congress, claiming that an adverse decision in Tucson would cause their communities to lose an editorial voice. A final decision came in 1970: Congress passed the Newspaper Preservation Act, which exempted newspapers from antitrust violations if the joint agreement was made to save one or both papers. This effectively overturned the Supreme Court decision, reinstating the Tucson JOA. One small step for Tucson, one giant step for newspapers nationwide.


For more information:

www.azstarnet.com
www.tucsoncitizen.com
www.tucson.com

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Company Quick Look
 
Number of employees: 750
Year founded: 1940
Work Environment: Professional
Awards: Gannett Excellence in Diversity, 2000 and 2002
Primary Business: Publishing and advertising
 
Tucson Newspapers (Tucson, AZ)