East Valley Tribune

East Valley Tribune
TypeWeekly newspaper
FormatTabloid
OwnerTimes Media Group
PublisherSteve Strickbine
EditorPaul Maryniak
Founded1891
Headquarters1620 W. Fountainhead Parkway, Ste. 219
Tempe, AZ 85282
US
Circulation170,000
OCLC number43033537
Websiteeastvalleytribune.com

The East Valley Tribune is a newspaper concentrated on cities within the East Valley region of metropolitan Phoenix, including Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, and Queen Creek.[1]

Formerly a daily newspaper, the Tribune resulted from the combination of local newspapers acquired by Cox Enterprises: The Tempe Daily News, the Mesa Tribune, the Gilbert Tribune, the Scottsdale Progress, and the Chandler Arizonan.

History

In 1891, Attorney Alfred P. Shewman and Judge W.D. Morton founded Mesa's first newspaper, the Evening Weekly Free Press. In 1899, Judge W.D. Morton sold out to Shewman, who died in 1901.

Frank T. Pomeroy and Harry D. Haines bought the paper in 1910 and converted it into a daily publication, The Evening Press. They then sold the paper in 1911.

In 1913, The Evening Press became the Mesa Daily Tribune, and in 1925, the paper was renamed the Mesa Daily Journal. The name changed again to the Daily Mesa Evening Journal in 1928.

In 1932, corporation made up of Mesa and Chandler businessmen acquired the Mesa Journal-Tribune.[2] The ownership group included P.R. Mitten and his son Charles A. Mitten. The two owned the Chandler Arizonian, but sold it in 1933 to fully focus on the Journal-Tribune.[3] In 1947, co-publisher P.R. Mitten died.[4] In January 1949, the Journal-Tribune expanded into a daily and was renamed to The Daily Tribune.[5] In 1950, C.A. Mitten sold the paper to David W. Calvert and Tilford W. Summers.[6] In 1956, a fire destroyed the paper's office, causing an estimated $150,000 worth of damage.[7] The printing plant relocated to a new property five months later.[8] In 1962, Calvert died.[9] R.W. Calvert succeeded him as publisher and in 1965 purchased the Palo Verde Valley Times of Blythe, California.[10]

In 1977, Cox Newspapers acquired the Mesa Tribune and Palo Verde Valley Times.[11] Cox acquired the Tempe Daily News in 1979,[12] the Chandler Arizonan in 1983,[13] and the Yuma Sun in 1984.[14][15] The company started the Gilbert Tribune in 1990,[16] and purchased the Scottsdale Progress in 1993.[17] Cox sold its six newspapers in Arizona to Thomson Newspapers in 1996.[18] Thomson acquired the Daily News-Sun of Sun City in 1997,[19] and the Ahwatukee Foothills News in 1998.[20] A year later, the Mesa Tribune was renamed to the East Valley Tribune.[21]

In 2000, Freedom purchased all the newspapers in Arizona owned by Thomson Newspapers. The sale included three dailies: Mesa Tribune, Daily News-Sun, and Yuma Sun, and several weeklies including the Ahwatukee Foothills News.[22] In 2008, Freedom discontinued the Tribune's Scottsdale and Tempe editions, although it would publish four distinct editions serving Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek. At that time the combined Tribune circulation across all editions was 100,000. Print was reduced to four days a week, and 142 jobs were cut, amounting to 40% of Tribune staff.[23] In 2009, the Tribune was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for its five-part series on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.[24]

Later that year, Freedom Communications filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.[25][26] As a result, the Tribune announced that it would cease operations on December 31, 2009.[27][28] However, Freedom kept publishing the Tribune past the deadlines after 10/13 Communications LLC, an affiliate of Thirteenth Street Media of Boulder, Colorado, agreed to buy the paper.[29] The transaction was approved by the bankruptcy judge in March 2010, as part of Freedom's reorganization process. The sale included the Tribune, the Daily News-Sun, the Ahwatukee Foothills News, Glendale/Peoria Today and Surprise Today. 10/13 Communications already owned a free-distribution weekly in the state called The Northwest Explorer.[30]

As a result of the sale, the Tribune relocated to staff to three smaller offices in Mesa, Tempe and Chandler.[31] In March 2011, it's main office was then relocated to Tempe.[32] The paper's archive was donated to the Chandler Museum.[33] In early 2012, the former Tribune complex was acquired by a private developer, extensively renovated and leased to the State of Arizona as the Mesa neighborhood offices for the Department of Economic Security.[34] In 2016, Times Media Group, acquired the East Valley Tribune and Ahwatukee Foothills News from 10/13 Communications.[35] The Daily News-Sun, Glendale/Peoria Today and Surprise Today were later sold to Independent Newspapers Inc.[36]

See also

  • Phoenix Tribune

References

  1. ^ "Pulitzer Prize Winners, 2009". Pulitzer.org.
  2. ^ "Mesa". Nogales International. Nogales, Arizona. February 13, 1932. p. 3.
  3. ^ ""Chandler Arizonan" Changes Hands May 1". The Coolidge Examiner. May 5, 1933. p. 1.
  4. ^ "Mesa Co-Publisher Dies Tuesday Night". Arizona Daily Sun. Flagstaff, Arizona. Associated Press. September 4, 1947. p. 6.
  5. ^ "Mesa Paper To Run Daily". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. December 3, 1948. p. 4.
  6. ^ "C.A. Mitten Sells Mesa Daily Tribune". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. March 31, 1950. p. 9.
  7. ^ "Fire Razes Newspaper In Mesa". Arizona Daily Star. Tucson, Arizona. Associated Press. January 30, 1956. p. 1.
  8. ^ "Mesa Paper Moves Into New Plant". Tucson Citizen. United Press. June 25, 1956. p. 6.
  9. ^ "Death Takes D.W. Calvert, Mesa Tribune". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. January 28, 1962. p. 21.
  10. ^ "Mesan Buys Blythe Paper". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. July 28, 1965. p. 7.
  11. ^ "Cox Enterprises Acquires Arizona, California Papers". The Atlanta Journal. Atlanta, Georgia. June 21, 1977. p. 23.
  12. ^ "Tempe Daily News sold to Cox chain of Atlanta". Arizona Daily Star. Tucson, Arizona. Associated Press. December 12, 1979. p. 7.
  13. ^ "Cox purchases Chandler paper". Arizona Daily Star. Tucson, Arizona. Associated Press. May 1, 1983. p. 46.
  14. ^ "Yuma company sells printing-firm interests". The Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. Associated Press. February 3, 1984. p. 6.
  15. ^ "Cox Buys Rest of Sun Publishing". The Courier. Prescott, Arizona. May 4, 1984. p. 3. Retrieved June 14, 2018 – via Google News Archive.
  16. ^ "Tribune group to offer Gilbert newspaper". Arizona Daily Star. Tucson, Arizona. Associated Press. November 5, 1990. p. 3.
  17. ^ "Cox Enterprises purchases Scottsdale paper". Longview News-Journal. Longview, Texas. July 28, 1993. p. 2.
  18. ^ Western, Ken (August 21, 1996). "Chain acquires Tribune papers | Also gets 'Yuma Daily Sun'". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. p. 1.
  19. ^ "Business Briefs | Newspapers complete deal". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. December 18, 1997. p. 45.
  20. ^ "Ahwatukee paper sold to Thomson". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. November 24, 1998. p. 52.
  21. ^ Ripley, Jim (October 30, 2011). "The East Valley: 30 years and counting". East Valley Tribune. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
  22. ^ "Freedom Buys Thomson's Newspapers In State". Kingman Daily Miner. Associated Press. June 27, 2000. Retrieved June 14, 2018 – via Google News Archive.
  23. ^ Billeaud, Jacques (November 10, 2008). "Move away from print a gamble for paper". Arizona Daily Star. Tucson, Arizona. pp. B004.
  24. ^ Hajela, Deepti (April 21, 2009). "Papers win Pulitzers despite woes". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. Associated Press. p. 4.
  25. ^ Peter Lattman; Russell Adams (August 31, 2009). "Paper Owner Freedom Plans to File For Chapter 11". Wall Street Journal.
  26. ^ de la Merced, Michael (September 1, 2009). "Freedom Communications Files for Bankruptcy". The New York Times. Retrieved September 2, 2009.
  27. ^ "East Valley Tribune to shut down Dec. 31". East Valley Tribune. Archived from the original on November 5, 2009. Retrieved November 3, 2009.
  28. ^ Taylor, Ed (November 3, 2009). "East Valley Tribune to close | About 140 employed at Phoenix-area paper; most jobs will be lost". Arizona Daily Star. Tucson, Arizona. pp. A012.
  29. ^ "'Tribune' to continue printing past Dec. 31". Arizona Republic. Phoenix, Arizona. December 31, 2009. p. 30.
  30. ^ Ducey, Lynn (February 15, 2010). "Freedom finalizes deal for sale of East Valley Tribune". Phoenix Business Journal. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  31. ^ "East Valley Tribune expanding offices into Tempe, Chandler". East Valley Tribune. November 19, 2010. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  32. ^ "East Valley Tribune moving to new offices". East Valley Tribune. March 22, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  33. ^ Perera, Srianthi (July 15, 2019). "How historians saved decades of EV Trib coverage". East Valley Tribune. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
  34. ^ Buchholz, Jan (February 3, 2012). "Former 'East Valley Tribune' building to house DES offices". Phoenix Business Journal. Archived from the original on February 6, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  35. ^ Sunnucks, Mike (January 27, 2016). "Scottsdale publisher buying East Valley Tribune, Ahwatukee Foothills News". Phoenix Business Journal. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  36. ^ O'Grady, Patrick (June 21, 2016). "Independent Newspapers buys 4 West Valley papers". Phoenix Business Journal. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
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