Award-winning journalist takes helm of Arizona Daily Star, state news operations

David McCumber, an award-winning newsman for work spanning multiple decades, is now executive editor of the Arizona Daily Star and Arizona state editor for Lee Enterprises, the Star’s parent company announced Thursday.

McCumber has served as Lee’s local news director for the west in recent years, including supervising the top Arizona editors for the company along with 23 other daily news operations in the western states.

“Lee is thrilled to have David stepping into this new role,” said Marc Chase, a news director for Lee Enterprises who announced McCumber’s appointment to the Arizona newsrooms Thursday. “David has led the highest levels of journalism in the American West — and particularly in Tucson and Montana — in his career. You’re not going to find a more driven journalist or a leader more passionate about the overall Arizona news operations.”

McCumber is being tapped to lead Lee’s Arizona markets as the industry-leading company continues evolving and growing its digital news offerings while also serving traditional print readers with the same high standards of journalism. Lee operates the Arizona Daily Star in partnership with Gannett.

“My previous time at Arizona Daily Star played a big role in teaching me to be a better journalist — and it also meant Tucson and the Star claimed a permanent place in my heart,” McCumber said Thursday. “It’s an honor to come back and lead this newsroom, and I’m also very pleased to take a statewide news leadership role.”

McCumber’s past roles with Lee include serving as editor and general manager of The Montana Standard in Butte, supervising news operations in Billings, Missoula, Helena and Hamilton in Montana and in Rapid City, S.D., Bismarck, N.D., and Casper, Wyoming.

His 50-plus years in newsrooms also include eight years as the newsroom leader for of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and a total of a decade at that newspaper. He also served as Washington Bureau Chief for the Hearst Corporation; editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press; and Sunday editor, city editor and assistant managing editor of the San Francisco Examiner, where he was editor for famed journalist Hunter S. Thompson for several years.

Previously in Tucson, McCumber was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Special Local Reporting in 1984, with reporters Clark Hallas and John S. Long, while working as city editor of the Arizona Daily Star. Four years earlier, he helped to edit a series of stories written by Hallas and Bob Lowe exposing improprieties at the University of Arizona football program — an effort that won a Pulitzer Prize.

“The Star has a distinguished local news legacy, and it has never been more important for us to add to it,” McCumber said. “I’m thrilled to work alongside the outstanding journalists here, and I feel keenly, as I know they do, the responsibility to do great work for our readers.”

Dani Longoria, president of Southwest Media Group, the advertising arm of the Daily Star, welcomed McCumber’s appointment to the helm of the newsroom.

“As the Arizona Daily Star is leaning into its largest digital transformation to date, a fresh perspective is crucial,” Longoria said. “David has lived and worked In Tucson. He recognizes the need for change. His award-winning experience allows him to understand what makes a community tick, and he’s dedicated to sharing timely, important and credible content with our readers.”

McCumber succeeds previous Star editor Jill Jorden Spitz while also assuming an expanded role for forming news strategy for Lee’s operations in Tucson and Flagstaff.