Some milestones in the history of the Tucson Citizen, Arizona's oldest newspapers:
— 1870: The Arizona Citizen, a weekly newspaper, is founded by John Wasson.
— 1877: The rival Arizona Weekly Star begins publishing. That paper would become the Arizona Daily Star.
— 1877: The Citizen is sold and moved to Florence.
— 1878: The Citizen moves back to Tucson.
— 1879: The Citizen becomes a daily, the paper continues publishing a weekly edition until 1912.
— 1901: The Arizona Citizen becomes the Tucson Citizen.
— 1929: The name is changed to the Tucson Daily Citizen.
— 1935: Owner Frank Hitchcock dies. The paper is purchased by William A. Small Sr. and William H. Johnson.
People are also reading…
— 1940: The Citizen enters into a joint agency plan with the Arizona Daily Star.
— 1965: The Citizen purchases the Star for $10 million.
— 1965: The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Citizen Publishing. The Citizen loses and appeals all the way to U.S. Supreme Court.
— 1969: The Supreme Court rules newspaper joint agency agreements are a violation of antitrust laws. The Citizen leads an effort to create an exemption to antitrust laws for newspapers.
— 1970: The defense of the Citizen-Star joint operating agreement results in Congress passing the Newspaper Preservation Act — which created a limited immunity from antitrust laws and allowed two newspapers to set advertising and circulation rates in the same market.
— 1971: The Star is sold to Pulitzer Publishing Co.
— 1976: The Small family sells the Citizen to New York-based Gannett Co. for $30 million in stock.
— 1977: Gannett changes the paper's name to the Tucson Citizen.
— 2009: Gannett announces it will sell or close the Tucson Citizen, effective March 21. After several extensions of that deadline, Gannett announces the last issue will be print edition will published on May 16, 2009. The Citizen will continue operating its web site.
Source: Star files, the Associated Press and "The Tucson Citizen" by Don Schellie.