Early years The newspaper was founded May 19, 1890, under the name
The Arizona Republican, by
Lewis Wolfley,
Clark Churchill, John A. Black,
Robert H. Paul, Royal A. Johnson, and Dr. L. C. Toney. Six years later, they sold the paper to "an experienced newspaperman" from Washington, DC, Charles C. Randolph. On April 28, 1909, the newspaper notified its readers that local businessmen S. W. Higley and Sims Ely purchased the newspaper from George W. Vickers, and would run the paper as president and general manager, respectively. They co-owned the newspaper until December 1911, Higley purchased Ely's interest in the paper. S. W. Higley held sole ownership of
The Arizona Republican, serving as president and manager until its sale to
Dwight B. Heard in October 1912. Dwight Heard, a Phoenix land and cattle baron, ran the newspaper from 1912 until his death in 1929. The paper was then run by two of its top executives, Charles Stauffer and W. Wesley Knorpp, until it was bought by Midwestern newspaper magnate
Eugene C. Pulliam in 1946. Stauffer and Knorpp had changed the newspaper's name to
The Arizona Republic in 1930, and also had bought the rival
Phoenix Evening Gazette and
Phoenix Weekly Gazette, later known, respectively, as
The Phoenix Gazette and the
Arizona Business Gazette.
Pulliam era Pulliam, who bought the two
Gazettes as well as the
Republic, ran all three newspapers until his death in 1975 at the age of 86. A strong period of growth came under Pulliam, who imprinted the newspaper with his conservative brand of politics and his drive for civic leadership. Pulliam was considered one of the influential business leaders who created the modern Phoenix area as it is known today. Pulliam's holding company, Central Newspapers, Inc., as led by Pulliam's widow and son, assumed operation of the
Republic/
Gazette family of papers upon the elder Pulliam's death.
The Phoenix Gazette was closed in 1997 and its staff merged with that of the
Republic. The
Arizona Business Gazette is still published to this day. In 1998, a weekly section geared towards
college students, "The Rep", went into circulation. Specialized content is also available in the local sections produced for many of the different cities and suburbs that make up the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Gannett purchase Central Newspapers was purchased by Gannett in 2000, bringing it into common ownership with
USA Today and the local Phoenix
NBC television affiliate,
KPNX.
The Republic and KPNX combined their forces to produce their common local news subscription website, www.azcentral.com;
The Republic and KPNX separated in 2015 when Gannett split into separate print and broadcast companies. Also in 2000, the Spanish-language publication
La Voz was founded. On September 25, 2015,
Mi-Ai Parrish was named publisher and president of both the paper and its azcentral.com website, effective October 12.
Circulation In 2013,
The Arizona Republic dropped from the sixteenth largest daily newspaper in the United States to the twenty-first largest, by circulation. In 2020 it had a circulation of about 116,000 for its daily edition, and 337,000 for its Sunday edition.
Don Bolles murder In 1976, an investigative reporter for the newspaper,
Don Bolles, was the victim of a car bombing. He had been lured to a meeting in Phoenix in the course of work on a story about corruption in local politics and business, and the bomb detonated as he started his car to leave. He died eleven days later. Retaliation against his pursuit of organized crime in Arizona is thought to be a motive in the murder. == Political endorsements ==