Arizona Daily Sun

What Arizona Daily Sun does

Arizona Daily Sun is a privately held community newspaper serving Flagstaff and Northern Arizona, owned by Wick Communications and publishing six days a week (Tuesday through Sunday) from a headquarters and printing facility at 1300 W. University Ave., Suite 100, Flagstaff. The publication delivers local news, sports, weather, politics, education, business, environment, obituaries, public notices, opinion, and lifestyle content under the mastheads "Arizona Daily Sun" and the short-form "azda," with a dedicated lifestyle sub-brand called FlagLive! covering arts, dining, books, and music.

The product surface spans a print edition, the azdailysun.com website, an e-Edition digital replica, native iOS and Android applications with push notifications, and email newsletters, all built on the TownNews BLOX content management system. Proprietary operational layers include the Sunrise Media branded-content studio producing paid advertorials, the annual Best of Flag reader-voted community awards program, and integrated public-notice publishing via the Arizona Public Notices network and column.us portal. Revenue is generated across multiple streams: recurring All-Access Pass subscriptions bundling digital and e-Edition access (with a $15.99 three-month introductory offer, auto-renewal, and cancel-anytime terms), display and classified advertising, sponsored/branded content, self-serve job postings through jobs.azdailysun.com / hiring.azdailysun.com, statutory public notices, and real estate Top Lists and Single Sales editorial features supplied by a third-party data partner. Customer segments span Flagstaff-area residents (subscribers and casual readers), local small and mid-sized businesses, real estate agents, employers and job seekers, and government and legal entities placing statutory public notices.

Name

Arizona Daily Sun

Legal name

Arizona Daily Sun

Website

https://azdailysun.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1883

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Arizona Daily Sun is a community newspaper serving Flagstaff and Northern Arizona, owned by Wick Communications, publishing six days a week across print, website, e-Edition, iOS/Android apps, and newsletters for local residents, SMB advertisers, employers, and government public-notice placers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Local Newspaper Publishing

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (513120), Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418)

SIC

Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

News, Politics & Current Affairs Magazines (MPAJAEAO)

Keywords

• Community newspaper publishing
• Local news subscription
• Digital news content
• Newspaper advertising sales
• Public notice publishing

Headquarters

HQ city

Flagstaff

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Digital and print subscriptions: Recurring All-Access Pass subscription bundle (Digital + E-Edition) with introductory 3-month offer at $15.99, auto-renewal, and cancel-anytime option. Includes gift subscription and promotional rate redemption functionality.
2. Display and classified advertising: Print and digital display advertising, classified ads (via column.us platform), and real estate Top Lists / Single Sales listings. Self-serve placement with invoiced billing for advertisers.
3. Sponsored / branded content: Sunrise Media branded content studio producing paid advertorials for local businesses (e.g., Kinney, Babbitt Ford) and nonprofits (United Way of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff Family Food Center).
4. Job postings: Self-serve job posting platform (jobs.azdailysun.com / hiring.azdailysun.com) allowing employers to purchase job listings and search resumes.
5. Public notices: Statutory public notice placement through Arizona Public Notices network and dedicated column.us search/place portal.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Arizona Daily Sun is a community newspaper publishing local news, sports, weather, opinion, and lifestyle coverage for Flagstaff and Northern Arizona across print (six days a week, Tuesday–Sunday), e-Edition digital replica, website (azdailysun.com), iOS/Android mobile apps, and email newsletters. The business sells consumer subscriptions (All-Access Pass Digital + E-Edition bundle) and generates advertising revenue through display, classified, sponsored/branded content (Sunrise Media), job postings, real estate listings, and statutory public notices.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• FlagLive!: Entertainment, lifestyle, and features section of Arizona Daily Sun covering cover stories, pulse, features, rearview, flicks and picks, and hot picks.

Products and services

• All-Access Pass (Digital + E-Edition) Subscription Combined digital website access and e-Edition digital print replica delivered via single recurring subscription for individual readers in Flagstaff and Northern Arizona; includes gift subscription option and pay-as-you-go billing.
• Print Edition Home Delivery Subscription Six-days-a-week print newspaper delivered to subscribers' homes covering Flagstaff and Northern Arizona local news, sports, weather, opinion, FlagLive! lifestyle content, and special sections.
• Mobile Applications (iOS and Android)

Quantifiable outcome

• 928 Sales & Rentals named Best of Flag Property Management for 10 consecutive years
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core, major and minor.

• Wick CommunicationsflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerParent company and copyright holder of Arizona Daily Sun ('Copyright © • Wick Communications'). Wick Communications is a community newspaper group providing ownership, back-office, and likely shared editorial/sales resources across its portfolio. Relationship is Them to Us at ownership level.
• TownNews (BLOX CMS)coreTechnology or IntegrationUnderlying content management and digital publishing platform powering azdailysun.com (evidenced by tncms template references, bloximages CDN, and townnews.com asset URLs). Provides CMS, e-Edition, mobile app, newsletter, subscription management, and ad infrastructure.
• Legacy.comcoreTechnology or IntegrationObituary hosting and submission platform partner; Arizona Daily Sun links to legacy.com/us/obituaries/azdailysun for viewing and to flagstaff.obituaries.com for submission, with obituary archive hosted on the Daily Sun domain.
• Apple App StorecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorDistribution partner for the Arizona Daily Sun iOS mobile application (App ID 437590033) on the Apple App Store.
• Google Play StorecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorDistribution partner for the Arizona Daily Sun Android mobile application (package com.azdailysun.news) on the Google Play Store.
• Arizona Public NoticescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStatutory public notice publishing network partner; Arizona Daily Sun integrates the statewide search portal (arizonapublicnotices.com) and dedicated column.us search/place portal for legal public notices.
• KinneymajorGTM or Marketing PartnerRecurring Sunrise Media branded content sponsor — multiple paid advertorial campaigns including 'Building Better Together: How Kinney Has Shaped Flagstaff for 27 Years' and '7 Ways United Way of Northern Arizona Is Changing Lives'; explicitly labeled 'paid advertisement from Kinney'.
• Babbitt FordmajorGTM or Marketing PartnerSponsored content partner producing '7 Ways You Can Support the Flagstaff Family Food Center This Winter' — explicitly labeled 'Sponsored by Babbitt Ford'.
• United Way of Northern ArizonaminorGTM or Marketing PartnerSponsored content subject partner featured in paid campaign '7 Ways United Way of Northern Arizona Is Changing Lives Right Here at Home'.
• Flagstaff Shelter Services / NAU / The Guidance CenterminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEditorial coverage of behavioral-health partnership where The Guidance Center provides daily onsite behavioral health services at Flagstaff Shelter Services' Huntington Drive location, with NAU partnership.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Arizona Range News: Sister publication within the Wick Communications portfolio serving Williams, Arizona and the Grand Canyon region. Most directly comparable as a co-owned community newspaper with shared back-office and identical publishing infrastructure.
• Daily Inter Lake: Community daily newspaper published six days a week in Kalispell, Montana, owned by Lee Enterprises. Directly comparable to Arizona Daily Sun as a small-market, multi-platform community daily using TownNews BLOX CMS with subscriptions, display advertising, and e-Edition.
• Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Community daily serving Bozeman, Montana, owned by Adams Publishing Group. Closely analogous mid-sized regional daily with print + digital subscription model, SMB advertising base, and similar market positioning to Arizona Daily Sun.

Others

• TownNews: Technology platform provider powering azdailysun.com via the BLOX CMS, e-Edition, mobile, newsletter, and subscription management infrastructure. Relevant ecosystem peer as the underlying publishing technology stack on which the publication's digital operations depend.
• Legacy.com: Obituary hosting and submission platform integrated with Arizona Daily Sun's obituary flow. Functions as a key ecosystem partner that monetizes obituary placements — a meaningful revenue vertical for community newspapers.

Broad incumbents

• Adams Publishing Group: Family-owned community newspaper publisher operating local dailies and weeklies across the U.S. Similar to Wick Communications in scale and operating model, making it a portfolio-level analog to Arizona Daily Sun's parent.
• Gannett Co. Largest U.S. newspaper publisher (USA TODAY Network) operating hundreds of community dailies including the Arizona Republic. Overlaps with Arizona Daily Sun in community newspaper publishing and local advertising, but at vastly larger scale and broader geographic footprint.
• Lee Enterprises: Major U.S. community newspaper group operating dozens of daily newspapers across small and mid-sized markets. Comparable business model of multi-platform community publishing, subscriptions, and SMB display advertising, though operating at much larger scale than Arizona Daily Sun.

Regional players

• Arizona Republic: Statewide daily newspaper of Arizona, owned by Gannett. Operates as a regional incumbent whose Northern Arizona coverage partially overlaps with Arizona Daily Sun's geographic footprint, though it does not match the depth of hyperlocal Flagstaff coverage.

Emerging players

• Patch Media: Digital-first hyperlocal news network with thousands of community-specific pages including Flagstaff. Represents the digital-native competitive threat to traditional community dailies, focusing on local news, events, and classifieds without print operations.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/azds
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/azdailysun
• Facebookfacebook.com/ArizonaDailySun
• Instagraminstagram.com/azdailysun
• TikToktiktok.com/@azdailysun
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/arizona-daily-sun

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Arizona Daily Sun