''Phoenix New Times'' is a free digital and print media company based in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. ''New Times'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circulates every Thursday. The company has been owned by

Voice Media Group Voice Media Group (VMG) is an American privately held media company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. VMG owns several newspaper publications across the country. These offerings extend across print, mobile and digital marketing. VMG's current pr ...

since January 2013, when a group of senior executives bought out the founding owners. David Hudnall was named editor-in-chief of Phoenix New Times in January 2020.

Founding

The paper was founded in 1970 by a group of students at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

, led by Frank Fiore, Karen Lofgren, Michael Lacey, Bruce Stasium, Nick Stupey, Gayle Pyfrom, Hal Smith, and later, Jim Larkin, as a

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

response to the

Kent State shootings The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre,"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years bef ...

in the spring of that year. Gary Brennan played a role in its creation. According to the 20th Anniversary issue of the ''New Times'', published on May 2, 1990, Fiore suggested that the anti-war crowd put out its own paper. The first summer issues were called the ''Arizona Times'' and assembled in the staff's La Crescenta apartments across from ASU. The ''Arizona Times'' was renamed the ''New Times'' as the first college issue went to press in September 1970.

Arrest controversy

In October 2007,

Maricopa County Maricopa County is in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,420,568, making it the state's most populous county, and the fourth-most populous in the United States. It contains about ...

sheriff's deputies arrested Lacey and Larkin on charges of revealing secret

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

information concerning the investigations of the ''New Times''s long-running feud with Maricopa County

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

Joe Arpaio Joseph Michael Arpaio (; born June 14, 1932) is an American former law enforcement officer and politician. He served as the 36th Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona for 24 years, from 1993 to 2017, losing reelection to Democrat Paul Penzone i ...

. In July 2004, the ''New Times'' published Arpaio's home address in the context of a story about his real estate dealings, which the County Attorney's office was investigating as a possible crime under Arizona state law. Special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik served Village Voice Media with a subpoena ordering it to produce "all documents" related to the original real estate article, as well as "all Internet web site traffic information" to a number of articles that mentioned Arpaio. Wilenchik further ordered Village Voice Media to produce the

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

es of all visitors to the ''Phoenix New Times'' website since January 1, 2004, as well as which websites those readers had been to prior to visiting. As an act of "

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

", Lacey and Larkin published the contents of the subpoena on or about October 18, which resulted in their arrests the same day. On the following day, the county attorney dropped the case after declining to pursue charges against the two. Special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik's subpoena included a demand for the names of all people who had read the Arpaio story on the newspaper's website. It was the revealing of the subpoena information by the ''New Times'' which led to the arrests.

Attorney Andrew Thomas dropped the charges less than 24 hours after the two were arrested. In the weeks following the arrests, members of the

Association of Alternative Newsweeklies The Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) is a trade association of alternative weekly newspapers in North America. It provides services to many generally liberal or progressive weekly newspapers across the United States and in Canada. AA ...

, of which the ''Phoenix New Times'' is a member, provided links on their websites to places where Arpaio's address could be found. This was done to show solidarity with the ''Phoenix New Times''. In February 2008, the paper filed a formal notice of claim, which is required by Arizona law before suing government officials. In December 2013, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors agreed to pay ''Phoenix New Times'' founders Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin $3.75 million to settle their false arrest lawsuit against the county defendants.

References

External links

''Phoenix New Times'' official website

Village Voice Media's subsidiary profile of the ''Phoenix New Times''
{{Voice Media Group Publications established in 1970 Mass media in Phoenix, Arizona Newspapers published in Arizona Alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States 1970 establishments in Arizona