by Matthew Holloway | Aug 19, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Following a post on X mourning the reported buyouts of Arizona Republic writers and reporters, Arizona Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes received a harsh rebuke for her participation in a 2000 stock trading scandal. Mayes acknowledged being a party in a 2003 article after resigning from the newspaper.
In her August 13th post, Mayes wrote, “The buyouts at the Arizona Republic are devastating. Losing legendary reporters like @maryjpitzl means less accountability and less transparency for the public. And it’s bad news for democracy. As a former Republic reporter it breaks my heart to see the state of the paper today.“
Brian Anderson, Founder of the Saguaro Group and Arizona Capitol Oversight, quoted the post from Mayes the following day. His post included a newspaper clipping dating to the 2003 Arizona Republic story that revealed Mayes’ participation in purchasing stock from Central Newspapers Inc. (CNI) shortly before the sale of the Arizona Republic to Gannett Co., Inc.. The stock trade netted the then-beat reporter approximately $5,000, according to Mayes.
Anderson wrote, “When @KrisMayes was a ‘journo’ at @azcentral, she was investigated for insider trading and then suddenly resigned.”
According to a 2022 article in the Republic, when the scandal came to light again in Mayes’ campaign for the AG Office, the Democrat defended the purchase of CNI stock. No charges against Mayes or the other nine members of the Republic newsroom were brought at the time.
However, as the Republic noted, a letter to readers in the newspaper in 2000 from then-Executive Editor Pam Johnson announced the scandal, informing readers that 10 of its “newsroom staff” were flagged by the company after purchasing CNI stock through their 401(k) accounts.
Johnson, who passed away at the age of 74 in 2021, openly chided her staffers, including Mayes, for violating the Republic’s ethics policy. She wrote, “Republic journalists should never attempt to gain from information the general public does not have access to.”
She told readers:
“In this case, we investigated all of those involved and concluded that no one had what securities regulators would consider ‘insider information.’ That is to say, they had no concrete evidence that the company was going to be put up for sale. And therefore, there were no legal implications. They acted on gossip. Still, they heard or saw things that the general public couldn’t.”
“Many of our staff members heard or saw those same things and did not act. As one said: ‘I didn’t know if it was illegal, but I knew it wasn’t right.’ We agree,” she added.
According to AZCentral, the punishments handed down in the incident included suspensions without pay for four supervisors and formal letters placed in the personnel files of six reporters, including Mayes. The Attorney General has maintained that her subsequent resignation was planned in advance so that she could attend law school.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Aug 14, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
In a letter to readers on Wednesday, Hank Stephenson, co-founder of the Arizona Agenda, dropped a bombshell that Gannett is reportedly buying out top reporters and columnists at the Arizona Republic.
The move follows Gannett’s decision to shutter its printing facilities in Arizona and the decision at News Media Corp that marked the end of five newspapers in outlying areas of Arizona.
Stephenson, a 15-year veteran journalist covering Arizona politics for the New York Times and Politico, wrote in part:
“The corporate morons at Gannett have offered another round of buyouts to their top talent at the Republic — and we’re losing some of the best reporters and columnists in Arizona.
“Among those that got bought out is “Agendie” winner and Arizona treasure Mary Jo Pitzl. Plus, we hear the list includes columnists Laurie Roberts, EJ Montini, Elvia Diaz, Phil Boas, among others.”
The story was posted to X by journalists Jen Fifield and Rachel Alexander. Fifield commented, “What will the Republic be without the great @maryjpitzl and its columnists. Thinking of all my journalism friends this week at the Republic and elsewhere. And our community.”
Alexander greeted the news with relish, writing, “The worst of the fake news local MSM in Arizona is finally no more! Granted, I agree that Mary Jo Pitzl wasn’t one of the worst, but Laurie Roberts and EJ Montini are two of the absolute worst fake news journos in our state.”
Garret Lewis, Host of The Afternoon Addiction on 550 KFYI, asked X at large, “Do you think USAID paid for any AZ Republic subscriptions?” alluding to reports that the agency paid for exorbitant subscriptions to various outlets, including Politico, as reported by Axios.
Lewis asked further, “Is it a coincidence that the USAID cash has dried up and now there is no more money for the AZ Republic? Hmmmm.”
On July 25th, Gannett Co., Inc., the parent company of the Arizona Republic, revealed that the historic broadsheet newspaper of Arizona would no longer be printed in the state, but rather would be printed at its Las Vegas facility and shipped into Arizona at the cost of 117 jobs and the closure of the paper’s massive Deer Valley Printing Facility in North Phoenix. At the time, Lark-Marie Antón, Gannett chief communications and brand officer, claimed in a statement that “The Arizona Republic will continue to provide readers with quality, local content that matters most to them,” and did not allude to any staffing changes at the newspaper.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Jul 27, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
In an announcement on Tuesday, Gannett Co., Inc., the parent company of the Arizona Republic, revealed that the newspaper will no longer be printed at the company’s Deer Valley Printing Facility in North Phoenix. The facility will be shut down with its 117 employees laid off.
According to AZCentral, the last copies of the Arizona Republic will roll off the presses at the 300,000-square-foot plant on October 5th, and the newspaper will be printed, packaged, and distributed from the company’s Las Vegas facility.
Lark-Marie Antón, Gannett chief communications and brand officer, explained in a statement, “Where our newspaper is printed does not impact our ability to deliver outstanding journalism. The Arizona Republic will continue to provide readers with quality, local content that matters most to them, and to connect our valued advertising partners with the customers they want to reach.”
Antón did not address the impact on Phoenix except to say that all of the facility’s employees involved in printing and packaging would receive severance packages: “We deeply appreciate the years of service our knowledgeable, skilled staff has dedicated to our Phoenix facility and the local community.”
The outlet reported that the 20-acre property where the plant stands has been acquired by Atlas Capital Partners of Scottsdale and New York-based DRA Advisors, with Atlas CEO Chris Walton saying, “The location, distinctive building characteristics, lower coverage and proximity to TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) all added to the allure of this acquisition.”
One employee who spoke to Fox 10 said, “After Oct. 1, it’s no longer a local paper. The amount of papers that we were doing, the amount of work we were doing for the 117 people there, it doesn’t make sense why they would cut our positions.”
The anonymous employee with almost 15 years at the facility told the outlet, “I’ve held almost every position they’ve had from an insert machine…to maintenance machinist supervisor,” he added that the announcement was “jarring.”
According to KTAR, the Deer Valley Facility also printed the Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), the Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff), as well as out-of-state publications such as The New York Times, USA Today, and other newspapers delivered in Arizona, New Mexico, and California. The move by Gannett will leave the Yuma Sun as the largest daily newspaper by circulation still printed in Arizona.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Mar 3, 2024 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The Arizona Republic bled over 25,700 subscriptions from 2022 to 2023, in line with an overall trend from its major sister companies across the nation. Daily, Sunday, and digital-only subscriptions totaled about 184,700 last year, compared to over 210,400 in 2022.
The losses were reported by the outlet’s parent company and nation’s largest newspaper publisher, Gannett Company, in their latest annual report released this week. Total subscriptions for Gannett’s 20 major publications dropped by over 200,700: from about 2.2 million to over 1.9 million.
The Republic had about 48,300 daily subscriptions last year compared to over 56,800 daily subscriptions in 2022; about 70,500 Sunday subscriptions last year compared to over 83,600 in 2022; and 65,946 digital only subscriptions last year compared to 69,956 digital only subscriptions in 2022.
Evidently, the lowest losses occurred with digital-only subscriptions. Gannett noted later on in its annual report that growth of digital-only subscriptions remains its best bet for gaining readership.
“To continue growing and accelerating our digital-only subscription base, we intend to capitalize on our large organic audience and leverage data to understand our users’ interests and curate an experience that will drive engagement and loyalty,” said Gannett. “We continue to believe we have significant opportunity to grow paid digital-only subscriptions in the future as we expand our content and our product offerings.”
Gannett also reported having less than half the workforce it boasted prior to its merger with GateHouse in 2019. As reported in 2022, the company initiated mass layoffs following multiple poor quarterly performances.
Per this latest report, the media giant has about 10,000 employees, compared to over 21,200 employees leading up to 2019. Downsizing is likely to continue: Gannett disclosed that it planned to continue doing so.
“We believe we are able to reduce future capital expenditure needs by having fewer overall pressrooms and buildings,” said Gannett. “By clustering our production resources, utilizing excess capacity for commercial work, or outsourcing where cost-beneficial, we seek to reduce the operating costs of our publications while increasing the quality of our small and mid-size market publications that would typically not otherwise have access to high quality production facilities.”
These layoffs were a double-edged sword, according to Gannett. The lack of talent has put a limit on their papers’ abilities to conduct solid enough operations to yield profitability.
Poor performance and the struggles resulting from forced layoffs don’t seem to be the only issue for Gannett. The company noted that the current state of the economy has forced the company to divert cash flow from operations into pension plan contributions, and that health and welfare benefits have increased significantly in cost.
Gannett also noted concern over the unionization of its workforce, remarking on the unknowns of labor costs, productivity, and flexibility that may result from labor disputes.
Gannett agreed to its first union contract with The Republic journalists last month, a process four years in the making. The agreement raised all reporter wages, with a guaranteed start minimum of $50,000 and pay increases averaging 13 percent for the two-year contract.
Gannett’s other Arizona subsidiaries — not named among its major publications — are Phoenix Newspapers (The Arizona Republic), Arizona News Service (produces Arizona Capitol Times and Yellow Sheet Report), and TNI Partners (produces Arizona Daily Star and the defunct Tucson Citizen).
Gannett also reported the following Arizona-based subsidiaries: Citizen Publishing Company, FoodBlogs, Sedona Publishing Company, and Thanksgiving Ventures.
Gannett reported owning and/or operating 21 production facilities producing an average of 16 publications; in addition to Arizona, each of the following states have one production facility: Alabama, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
Correct: A previous version of this story listed The Republic’s digital only subscriptions at 65,956 for 2022. The Republic’s digital only subscriptions for 2022 were 69,956, and the story has been corrected.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Aug 10, 2022 | Economy, News
By Corinne Murdock|
Gannett, parent company to the Arizona Republic, will commence layoffs and diminish salaries following a poor second quarter last week.
Gannett, which also owns half of the Arizona Daily Star, said in a press release that this “significant cost reduction program” would help pay down $150 to $200 million of their debt. The media conglomerate reported a net loss of $53.7 million, or over 7 percent of its margin. Gannett also experienced a 7 percent decrease in revenues, despite digital revenues increasing 1.5 percent to make up 35 percent of total revenues.
The Tucson Sentinel said that its sources confirmed that Gannett tasked managers with layoffs. Poynter sources clarified that salary cuts will have a 10 percent minimum, and that layoffs begin on Friday.
These layoffs will come, despite Gannett’s participation in initiatives like the Big Tech-funded program, Report for America, which supplied and covered portions of reporter salaries at 21 of its papers, including the Arizona Republic. The paper has hired three Report for America reporters so far. Report for America received an undisclosed sum of $5,000 to $50,000 from Gannett.
Report for America covers at least half of its reporters’ salaries the first year, a third of their salaries the second year, and just under a quarter of their salaries the third year, with the offer to cover the remainder of these salaries through fundraising.
The Arizona Republic subscriber base has declined over the years. According to their latest Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, their daily circulation was just over 109,000, with a Sunday circulation of over 320,200. That’s about 1.5 percent and 4 percent of the total Arizona population, respectively, and marks a decline of over 7,000 from 2020.
In 2019, their circulation numbers fell below 100,000, marking the steepest decline among Gannett papers.
The SEC filing reflected that the Arizona Republic is Gannett’s fourth-largest major news publication, with the third-largest daily and Sunday circulations.
USA Today has a daily circulation of nearly 781,200 and a Sunday circulation of nearly 534,600; Detroit Free Press has a daily circulation of over 83,700 and a Sunday circulation of over 896,600; and the Columbus Dispatch has a daily circulation of nearly 137,800 and a Sunday circulation of over 134,700.
Comparatively, the New York Times reported a $76 million profit for their second quarter despite being a smaller company than Gannett.
Gannett’s report inspired new criticisms from its journalists and their unions across the country. The Media Guild of the West indicated that Gannett’s recent decline occurred because the conglomerate was more concerned with corporate lobbying than sustaining newsrooms.
The guild cited Gannett’s network-wide advertising and editorial campaign in support of the Journalism Competition and Protection Act (JCPA) to remove antitrust restrictions preventing Gannett from being paid for content to appear on the platform feeds of social media giants like Google and Facebook.
The guild noted that Gannett authorized its CEO to buy more company stock rather than invest in retaining journalists.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
