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About Northwest Valley Newspapers
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Northwest Valley Newspapers is
the region's most widely circulated and best read local newspapers. Newspapers
it circulates are read by 250,000 residents of Peoria, Glendale, Sun Cities,
Surprise, Youngtown and El Mirage. Northwest Valley Newspapers includes
the Daily News-Sun, serving the area's retirement communities, Northwest
Valley News, serving Arrowhead and northern Glendale/Peoria, and Surprise
Today, which covers all of Surprise, including Sun City Grand.
The newspapers' mission is entirely local. The Daily News-Sun is full of
news and features designed for retirees ranging from Baby Boomers through
the Greatest Generation. Surprise Today is the local newspaper for Arizona's
fastest-growing city. And Northwest Valley News chronicles the lives, education,
government and lifestyle of people and businesses in Arrowhead Ranch, Fletcher
Heights, Westbrook Village, the Bell Road Corridor and emerging north Peoria.
The newspapers emerged in 1956 from humble beginnings of two mimeographed
pages in Youngtown to become the only local daily newspaper serving the
West Valley suburbs of metropolitan Phoenix and the most widely circulated
papers in the Northwest Valley.
Here is a timeline of the
Northwest
Valley Newspapers' history:
1956 - Two mimeographed pages
of news are published by Marshal Adams as the Youngtown News. Youngtown
is the brainchild of Ben Schleifer, one of the first developers to see the
possibilities of communities populated entirely by senior citizens. The
Youngtown Historical Society keeps a few copies of these earliest issues
at Clubhouse Square.
1957 - The Youngtown News
changes to a twice-monthly publication, professionally typeset on a small
tabloid size. The paper begins publishing photographs. Adams takes on partner
Sydney Lambert.
1958 - In poor health since
moving to Youngtown, Adams dies on Aug. 31. Lambert assumes the ownership
and operation of The Youngtown News.
The slogan under The Youngtown News masthead at one point in the paper's
existence boasts of "All the News That Residents Want to See and Read
in Print."
Advertisers mostly are Glendale and Phoenix businesses, as there are few
businesses yet established in Youngtown in the late 1950s.
Among the visitors to the pioneering retirement community of Youngtown is
Delbert Eugene Webb, owner of a Phoenix construction firm and co-owner of
the New York Yankees. When Webb's company applies to Maricopa County for
zoning to build 1,000 houses in "the Youngtown area" - across
Grand Avenue to the east on land that had long been used for farming - The
Youngtown News rejoices.
1960 - Six months after the
Webb company begins selling houses in the fledging Sun City, Lambert changes
the newspaper's name to the Youngtown News and Sun City Sun. The paper also
revamps its slogan: "Youngtown's First Newspaper and Now Sun City's
First."
Lambert decides to sell his tabloid to entrepreneurs, Burt and Ursula Freireich.
Burt had been a sports writer with The Phoenix Gazette but dreamed of owning
his own paper.
With a $1,500 down payment and lots of confidence - but with little experience
in photography or crafting display advertising - Burt Freireich takes control
of the paper, which is redubbed the News-Sun for the July 22, 1960, issue.
The paper soon goes to weekly publication.
1977 - The News-Sun becomes
the Daily News-Sun, publishing six days a week.
1984 - The Freireichs sell
the Daily News-Sun to Ottaway Newspapers Inc., a subsidiary of Dow Jones
& Co. Inc.
1995 - The Prospector, a tabloid
forerunner of the Northwest Valley News, begins publication in Glendale/Peoria
on Jan. 13.
1996 - Surprise Today begins
as a monthly tabloid.
1997 - Ottaway announces the
sale of the newspapers to Thomson Newspapers. Sister publications include
the East Valley Tribune and Ahwatukee Foothills News.
1999 - Surprise Today becomes
a weekly tabloid publication and expands circulation.
2000 - Freedom Communications
Inc., owner of 28 daily and 37 weekly newspapers plus eight television stations,
becomes the owner of the Daily News-Sun and its assets in a sale that involves
all newspapers in Thomson's Arizona holdings.
2001 - Surprise Today changes
to a broadsheet publication and expands circulation. The Prospector changes
to the Northwest Valley News and also becomes a broadsheet newspaper with
expanded circulation.
Today - The three publications
of the Northwest Valley Newspapers group, plus the free Daily News-Sun Plus
weekly publication that reaches all of the Sun Cities, covers the distinct
communities that make up the Northwest Valley of metropolitan Phoenix. The
publications saturate the Northwest Valley and are delivered to nearly 120,000
households, reaching a quarter of a million readers - by far the greatest
penetration of any publication circulation in the area.
The Daily News-Sun offers
news, lifestyle and financial information mainly to the retirement audience
in Sun City, Sun City West and Sun City Grand, plus seniors in Glendale,
Peoria and Surprise.
Surprise Today is the hometown
newspaper covering Surprise and El Mirage, while the Northwest
Valley News provides local news, sports and entertainment
to residents of Peoria and Glendale.
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