About The Tucson citizen. [volume] (Tucson, Ariz.) 1901-1928
Tucson, Ariz. (1901-1928)

The Arizona Daily Citizen and the Tucson Citizen

The weekly Arizona Citizen, which began publication in Tucson in 1870, was one of Arizona's earliest newspapers. Published by John Wasson, the weekly paper was sold to John P. Clum in 1877. Clum then started the affiliated daily newspaper the Daily Arizona Citizen in 1879, while the weekly paper continued publication for many years. Clum sold his rights to both newspapers to R.C. Brown in early 1880, and a few months later, he co-founded the Tombstone Epitaph.

By 1884, the daily paper's name changed to the Arizona Daily Citizen. In its early years, the Daily Citizen usually focused on local and state news, and it included editorials, a professional directory, and pages full of advertisements for local businesses. Columns like "Pick and Drill, Mill and Smelter" and "Hoofs and Horns, Ranch and Range" reported mining and agricultural news. Arizona's journey from territory to statehood was often reported in the paper, including a 1902 front page headline, "Fight for Statehood," ten years before Arizona would become a state. Initially four pages in length, the newspaper grew substantially over its long run to include national and international news.

In December 1901, under the editorship of O'Brien Moore, the newspaper's name changed to the Tucson Citizen, and the new masthead declared: "The Dawn of a New Era for Tucson." An editorial discussed improvements to the paper, including more space for advertisers, and it described the newspaper's goals: "We believe the people of Arizona in general, and Tucson in particular, want … an honest, plain-spoken, intelligent, enterprising newspaper, and this is what The Citizen aims to be … There is no better indication of the character of a town than the character and quality of its newspapers. An enterprising intelligent, up-to-date newspaper plainly indicates a progressive, prosperous, intelligent community."

The Citizen described itself as "a representative Republican paper, devoted to the interest of Pima County and the Territory of Arizona." In its 1920 anniversary issue, the newspaper noted that it "has always been a Republican paper, save from 1901 to 1910" when O'Brien Moore was editor and ran the paper as Democratic. Despite this difference in politics, the anniversary issue described him as a "brilliant editorial writer" who "became one of the landmarks of journalism in Arizona."

After O'Brien Moore's death in 1906, his widow Agnes took over as publisher until she sold the paper in 1910 to James T. Williams and Allan B. Jaynes. Williams was president of The Tucson Printing and Publishing Company for a few years, followed by Jaynes who ran the paper for several more years. Jaynes' obituary in 1920 reported that "he made it the leading republican paper of the state" and that under him, "circulation more than quadrupled."

The newspaper had several owners and editors during the subsequent years, with another name change to theTucson Daily Citizen from 1929 until 1977, when it returned to the Tucson Citizen for the remainder of its publication. When the daily paper had first appeared in 1879, the Weekly Arizona Miner commented: "Mr. Clum, the editor and proprietor, assures his readers that the Daily Citizen has come to stay … " The daily Tucson Citizen did stay for many years as the city's afternoon paper until it ceased print publication in May 2009. An online publication, TucsonCitizen.com, described as "a compendium of blogs" continued until January 2014.

Provided by: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ