Citizen Staff Report
THE FINAL EDITION
Tucson reacts
Citizen Staff Report
The Citizen staff called area political, business and cultural leaders for their reaction to Friday’s announcement that the Citizen will cease printing a paper. Their comments follow:
“Well, it’s too bad it had to be you guys. I honestly have always thought the evening paper here was far superior to the morning paper.”
Bob McMahon
owner, Metro Restaurants
“It’s a sad day for our region. We’re losing an institution that was a watchdog of our local governments. We’re losing competition between newspapers that led to more aggressive reporting and better information. We’re losing a part of our history and our collective memory. The Citizen and all of Pima County deserved much better from Gannett.”
Ann Day
Pima County supervisor
“The Tucson Citizen is the oldest newspaper in Arizona. It’s a large loss for future readers and for us who have depended on the Citizen every day of our lives.”
Gabrielle Giffords
U.S. congresswoman
“That’s a dark day in Tucson’s history. The Citizen always gave balanced coverage. That has always been very healthy for Tucson. You lose a second voice, a second opinion. Two voices are better than one as far as I’m concerned.”
Jack Camper
executive director, Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
“The presence of two daily newspapers in a city guarantees there will be accurate and objective news reporting. . . . The loss of the Citizen puts the responsibility on the Daily Star to do the task well. ”
Glenn Lyons
Downtown Tucson Partnership
“I just think it’s a real blow to the community, a real loss. I think it will diminish the level of balance and independent journalism that we need to keep the community informed.
“I think the Citizen has always done a good job of digging for the facts and making important information accessible. The quality of the local news reporting at the Citizen has always stood out. It’s a real loss.”
Karin Uhlich
City Councilwoman
As a small nonprofit theatre business owner it was writers like you, Rogelio (Olivas), and Chuck Graham that made a tremendous difference to our organization. The Citizen gave all live theatres in town an equal footing. The Citizen was willing to listen to a small organization in the Tucson arts community by covering or critiquing their next production. I for one, as an executive director of a 25-year-old community theatre, whose members worked thousands of hours to bring theatre to Tucson, will miss the Citizen for its support.
Priscilla Marquez
former executive director of Catalina Players
“Even when I was a reporter and anchor, one of the things I always told students was you don’t get all your news from television. I’m truly going to miss the Citizen. I always looked to the Citizen for clear, straightforward reporting of what was happening downtown.”
Nina Trasoff
city councilwoman
“As a Tucsonan, elected official and a proponent of citizen engagement, I am deeply saddened by the closing of our state’s oldest newspaper and will have the working families impacted by the shutdown in my thoughts during these though economic times.”
Rodney Glassman
city councilman
“Anytime you lose an institution in the media like a newspaper that’s been publishing more than 100 years is sad. There’s bound to be a void in the coverage. I understand the feeling of abandonment of employees, but also in the community, not getting information.”
Richard Elías
Board of Supervisors chairman
“The more media outlooks citizens have the better,” Romero said. “It’s really important that we have different perspectives from different newspapers.”
Regina Romero
Tucson councilwoman
Referring to the Web site, which will offer only opinion pieces: “That’s great. I’ll make sure I pay attention to that.”
“More and more people are getting their news online these days.”
Ray Carroll
Pima County supervisor