The ''Tucson Citizen'' was a daily newspaper in Tucson, Arizona. It was founded by
Richard C. McCormick
Richard Cunningham McCormick, Jr. (May 23, 1832June 2, 1901) was an American politician, businessman and journalist. He was the second Governor of Arizona Territory, three times delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona Territory ...
with John Wasson as publisher and editor on October 15, 1870, as the ''Arizona Citizen''.
When it ceased printing on May 16, 2009, the daily circulation was approximately 17,000, down from a high of 60,000 in the 1960s. The ''Citizen'' published as Tucson's afternoon paper, six days per week (except Sunday, when only the ''
Arizona Daily Star
The ''Arizona Daily Star'' is the major morning daily newspaper that serves Tucson and surrounding districts of southern Arizona in the United States.
History
L. C. Hughes was the Arizona Territory governor and founder of the ''Arizona Star'', ...
'' (Tucson's morning paper during the week) was published as part of the two papers' joint operating agreement).
The ''Tucson Citizen'' was the oldest continuously published newspaper in Arizona at the time it ceased publication.
History
Founder Richard C. McCormick had originally been the owner of the '' Arizonan''. However, when the editor of the ''Arizonan'' refused to support McCormick's re-election as congressional delegate for the territory of Arizona, McCormick took the press and started the ''Arizona Citizen'' with Wasson. During the mid-1880s, the newspaper was known as the ''Tucson Weekly Citizen''. Allan Brown Jaynes was owner, manager and editor of the ''Tucson Citizen'' between 1901 and 1920. He was very involved in the statehood of Arizona and is in the Arizona Newspaper Hall of Fame.
William A. Small
William is a male given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norm ...
, his wife, and William H. Johnson invested in the newspaper in the late 1930s after the death of owner Frank Harris Hitchcock. Johnson sold his share to Small in 1964, and Small turned control over to his son,
William A. Small Jr.
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
in 1966 when he retired.
In 1976, the ''Citizen'' was sold to Gannett Company, Inc.
Editor and Publisher Michael Chihak retired from the ''Citizen'' and Gannett on July 3, 2008. Senior Editor Jennifer Boice and Editorial Editor Mark Kimble co-filled the position in the interim, until the end of publication.
In January 2009, the
Gannett Company
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. However, those negotiations did not bear fruit, and on May 15, 2009, Gannett announced that the final print edition would appear the following day, and that the ''Citizen'' would thereafter be an Internet publication. The last print edition was delivered on May 16, 2009.
Gannett's attempted sale and closure of the ''Citizen'' was the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and court action by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.
Online publication
The successor site, TucsonCitizen.com, edited by the paper's former assistant city editor, Mark B. Evans, described itself as "a compendium of blogs . . . written by Tucsonans for Tucsonans. The bloggers and citizen journalists here provide news, information, opinion, commentary and perspective on the issues, interests and events that affect daily life in the Old Pueblo." It was a division of Gannett Company, Inc., and a partner of Tucson Newspapers. The site closed on January 31, 2014.
Several former ''Citizen'' staffers founded
TucsonSentinel.com
The ''Tucson Sentinel'' is a nonprofit online newspaper in Tucson, founded in 2009 and began publishing full-time in January 2010, with a focus on Arizona and regional news.
History
The Sentinel was founded in 2009 after the shutdown in May 2009 ...
, a nonprofit online news site, after the newspaper was closed.TucsonSentinel.com /ref>