Timeline: Key dates and milestones in the history of The Arizona Republic.
KEY DATES AND MILESTONES
The Arizona Republic has captured Arizona’s history for 130 years, all the while creating a history of its own. The newspaper has changed ownership eight times since its inception by co-owners Arizona Territorial Gov. Lewis Wolfley and Arizona Attorney General Clark Churchill. In its early years, it bought and absorbed its competitor. Since its beginning, The Republic has engaged in watchdog journalism to expose scandal, corruption and fraud. It’s taken up causes such as the need for clean air and better medical service for the men and women of the military. And, along the way, it became a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the highest honor in journalism, and a repeated finalist. Some of the highlights since its creation as The Arizona Republican.
1890s
May 19, 1890: The Arizona Republican debuts. The newspaper office is on First Avenue near Washington Street in Phoenix.
1895: Reveals investigative ability with a series of stories describing Chineseowned opium dens in downtown Phoenix, which leads to police raids and several arrests.
May 1899: Buys and absorbs Phoenix Daily Herald.
1900s
Photos begin appearing in the paper, usually only one column wide. Paper continues to rely visually on artist drawings and cartoons.
Feb. 1, 1909: Stops accepting contracts for ads on the front page.
1910s
After statehood, it adds the words “An Independent Progressive Journal” to its flag. It periodically includes the phrase “The State’s Greatest Newspaper” in its flag.
1912: After several owners since Wolfley, paper is sold to Dwight B. Heard.
Feb 4, 1917: As World War I looms, front page has bulletin telling readers it will display latest news of the international crisis on its office building.
1920s
Jan. photography 9, 1923: First (a car use accident). of spot news
Oct. 23, 1923: First day of four pages of
comics.
April 13, 1924: Prints first crossword
puzzle.
April 20, 1924: The Republican begins safe-driving campaign and asks drivers to sign pledges.
Jan. 19, 1929: It announces start of a “daily magazine” with things of interest for “men, women, boys and girls.”
May 12, 1929: In conjunction with YMCA and YWCA, paper offers free, 10-day swimming instruction course.
1930s
November Phoenix Evening 1930: Gazette, Publishers which purchase becomes The Phoenix Gazette.
Nov. 11, 1930: The Arizona Republican shortens its name to Arizona Republic.
Jan. 18, 1931: Sponsors oratorical contest.
Jan. 20, 1933: In a promotion, it offers to have graphologist analyze writings of
Republic readers.
Dec. 8, 1934: Publishes on Page 6 a photograph of a pedestrian killed in a hit-and-run accident.
1940s
Oct. 25, 1946: Eugene C. Pulliam of Indianapolis buys the Phoenix newspapers for $4 million and organizes Phoenix Newspapers Inc., a subsidiary of
Central Newspapers Inc.
1946: Arizona Republic becomes The Arizona Republic.
April 27, 1947: Contract let for construction of a two-story building at 120 E. Van Buren St. Building is occupied in mid-1948.
1948-49: Campaigns for charter government reform movement, which will dominate Phoenix City Hall until 1975.
1950s
May 7, 1951: Editorial cartoonist Reg Manning wins a Pulitzer Prize.
May 24, 1953: Debuts Arizona Days and Ways, a Sunday supplement. Promises to include photos and articles “from every corner of the state stories on personalities to painting, history and heroism.”
1960s
1963-67: Investigative reporting reveals political kickbacks at several state agencies; results include indictments, changes in state laws.
1970s
June 6, 1974: Reporter Al Sitter reveals pervasive land fraud in Arizona; legislators and civic leaders go after criminals.
June 23, 1975: Eugene C. Pulliam dies at age 86. His widow, Nina Mason Pulliam, becomes publisher and president.
June 2, 1976: Reporter Don Bolles mortally injured by car bomb; dies June 13.
March 23, 1977: Announcement of switch to “coldtype” printing and computer word processing/typesetting.
October 1979: “Zoned” editions to cover Valley communities begin.
1980s
March 11, 1980: General Manager Duke Tully is named
publisher.
July 3, 1980: Announcement of Mesa satellite printing
plant.
Sept. 25, 1985: While on assignment, Republic reporter Charles Thornton is killed in a battle zone in Afghanistan.
Dec. 26, 1985: Tully resigns in disgrace after faking an elaborate military career.
March 11, 1986: Pat Murphy is named publisher.
Oct. 4-12, 1987: Runs investigative series “Fraud in Indian Country prompts a new look at national policy.”
1988: Reporter Sam Stanton is a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Gov. Evan Mecham’s first year in office. Also, Reporters Mike Masterson and Chuck Cook are Pulitzer finalists for their coverage of corruption and mismanagement in federal Indian programs.
Mid-1988: Becomes first large newspaper to make up all of its pages electronically.
1989: Reporters Mike Masterson and Chuck Cook are Pulitzer finalists for their coverage of risks to the elderly from prescription drug errors, interactions and abuse.
June 13, 1989: Announces plans for a second satellite plant, in Deer Valley.
1990s
1993: Editorial cartoonist Steve Benson wins a Pulitzer Prize.
1993: Company begins Season for Sharing program with goal of improving the lives of Arizona residents. Donations have topped more than $66 million since the program began and are given to local non-profit agencies.
1995: Republic launches website, azcentral.com.
Early 1997: The Phoenix Gazette folds, the victim of some of the problems that have plagued afternoon dailies in many big cities, such as changing lifestyle habits and dwindling circulation.
2000s
Early 2000: Company launches its second wholly owned online site, arizonarepublic.com, and continues to add new sites and features. It also launches address-specific delivery capability to virtually every household in the Valley.
June 2000: Gannett Co. Inc. agrees to buy The Arizona Republic and all other Central Newspapers properties. The Republic becomes the largest non-national newspaper owned by Gannett, ending a tradition of family ownership that spanned more than 50 years.
2001: Columnist Laurie Roberts is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her work urging reforms in the way Arizona draws its legislative and congressional districts.
March 2001: azcentral.com welcomes Channel 12 (KPNX-TV), the Phoenix NBC affiliate and the mostwatched station in Arizona, as its partner.
2003: Editorial writer Linda Valdez is a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her pieces on illegal immigrants and Justice of the Peace courts.
2010s
2012: Republic staff is a Pulitzer finalist for coverage of the mass shooting near Tucson.
2014: Republic staff is a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking-news category for coverage of the Yarnell Hill Fire.
Aug. 5, 2014: Gannett, owner of Republic Media
(which includes The Arizona Republic, azcentral.com and La Voz), announces it will create two publicly traded companies in 2015, as it moves to separate its broadcasting and digital businesses from its publishing division.
2015: Several reporting/photography projects capture national awards, including “Pipeline of Children,” which examines the surge of unaccompanied children and families from Central America into the U.S., and work exposing how Department of Veterans Affairs officials falsified appointment wait-time data for veterans, some of whom died awaiting care.
2016: Republic reporter Craig Harris wins a prestigious George Polk Award for his reporting on a series of illegal firings of state employees, many of whom were ordered reinstated after his stories ran. Later that summer, the Republic wins a key freedom of information lawsuit when it successfully fights the subpoena of a reporter’s confidential notes in court.
April 2018: The Republic wins its third Pulitzer Prize, this one for explanatory journalism, for an innovative multi-media project exploring all facets of President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. The project
featured a documentary film and an accompanying interactive map that allows users to zoom in on every single inch of the U.S. border with Mexico.
2019: Republic reporters Harris, Anne Ryman, Alden Woods and Justin Price win the Republic’s second George Polk award in three years for an investigation into Arizona’s scandal-plagued charter schools industry. In October, newsroom employees voted overwhelmingly to unionize after a failed attempted hostile takeover of Gannett by a hedge fund and the company’s subsequent merger with another chain.
March 2020: The Republic, USA Today and The Center for Public Integrity win the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting for the series Copy, Paste, Legislate, which details how special interest groups create “model legislation” on their own behalf and distribute it to compliant legislators nationwide, who often pass it into law without scrutiny. At the same time, Republic reporters and editors enter a brave new world of news coverage as they work from home and learn to don Personal Protective Equipment as they cover the COVID-19 pandemic.