A possible repreive?

From APSE: Award-winning sports section, paper will continue publishing during sale negotiations
By MICHAEL ANASTASIChair,
West RegionManaging Editor
Salt Lake Tribune
Story posted on March 18, 2009
The closure of the Tucson Citizen, Arizona's oldest newspaper, was put on hold Tuesday when parent company Gannett announced it was in negotiations with two potential buyers.
The 138-year-old newspaper, which produces one of the country's premier sports sections under 40,000 circulation, was scheduled to publish its final edition on Saturday if a buyer hadn't come forth. Now, Gannett said, the Citizen is being published on a day-to-day basis while negotiations proceed.
Under Sports Editor Mike Chesnick's leadership, the Citizen has won Top 10 daily section honors in seven of the past nine years as well as five Top 10 special section awards and 10 Top 10 writing awards over the past decade.
"It's been such a great experience the last 10 years," said Chesnick, who was reeling from Tuesday's news after spending the entire day working on what was to be a 24-page commemorative edition for Saturday. "Now I have no idea what my centerpieces are going to be next week."
Gannett announced in January the paper was up for sale. The Citizen, an afternoon newspaper, has seen its market share steadily decrease in competition with the Arizona Daily Star, a morning paper. According to a story in Editor & Publisher, the Citizen's circulation has declined to around 17,000 from a peak of about 60,000 in the 1960s. The Arizona Daily Star has a circulation of about 117,000.
Still, that imbalance hasn't prevented the Citizen from engaging in compelling sports journalism. Corky Simpson retired a few years ago after 30 years at the Citizen but helped establish a national reputation for the paper by consistently placing among the Top 10 in column writing. That tradition continued under Chesnick, who has worked at the Citizen for 24 years in a variety of roles.
"Mike and his staff give a big-league effort and get big-league results every day," said Michael Limon, the paper's former managing editor who is now business editor at The Salt Lake Tribune. "Without the resources of bigger papers, they've always given Tucson readers the best in sports."
Sports was to represent a healthy chunk of the final edition. Among the content planned was a reprint of the first football story published in the paper, in 1899, and the first basketball story, five paragraphs published in 1904.
"We've always considered ourselves the underdog and it was a great source of pride whenever we scooped the competition," Chesnick said. "We have such a solid staff and not much turnover. We're like a family."
The staff includes:
■ Steve Rivera, a 22-year Citizen veteran who covers Arizona basketball and has won three Top 10 writing awards.
■ Anthony Gimino, who's won four Top 10's including one for the best game's story in 2005.
■ John Moredich, the Arizona football beat writer and multiple state-award winner.
■ Michael Schmelzle, the assistant sports editor.
■ Geoff Grammer, the former sports editor in Las Cruces who has guided the Citizen's prep coverage.
■ Reporters Bryan Lee, Ken Brazzle and Raymond Suarez.
Not surprisingly, the Citizen sports staff is working hard and with professionalism right up to what it thought was the end, preparing readers for Friday's NCAA opener between the University of Arizona and Utah. Rivera was dispatched to Miami and, with the commemorative edition planned to contain no live news, was scheduled to write a final game story for the Web. Chesnick had planned to edit the story in his final act as sports editor before heading to a farewell party.
"Boy, I'm sure glad I sent him," Chesnick said.
Looks like the Citizen has its Saturday centerpiece