Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, once again expands its footprint in the Phoenix Metro market.

The Arizona group, home of the Phoenix Daily Independent at YourValley.net, acquired the Wrangler News and WranglerNews.com from longtime owner Don Kirkland.

“We’re thrilled to oversee the oldest hyperlocal newspaper still in existence serving the Tempe market,” said INI President & CEO Charlene Bisson. “We’ve been blessed the past three years in acquiring JG Media’s Community Impact Phoenix newspapers, the Fountain Hills Times and now the Wrangler News. We look forward to merging the Tempe Independent with the Wrangler News and increasing our frequency.”

Kirkland will join INI’s growing family. He began a lifelong journalism career at the age of 10, when he published a small neighborhood newspaper in his hometown of Glendale, Calif. He was involved in news production during his years at Glendale High School, was editor of the school newspaper and wrote a weekly column for the Glendale News Press.

While in college, Kirkland was recruited by Lyn Nofziger, editor of the Burbank (Calif.) Daily Review and eventually one of the nation’s most highly regarded journalists, ultimately serving as press secretary to Gov. Ronald Reagan and later, in Washington, D.C., as the top spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.

Following his stint as a reporter in Burbank, Kirkland joined the staff of the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram, where he remained for almost 10 years. He transitioned to a position in media relations, working with such recognized clients as Dennis DeConcini during DeConcini’s two successful campaigns for the United States Senate, and a series of other high-profile Phoenix-area clients.

Kirkland made another transition in his media relations career when he was recruited as executive editor of the Mesa Tribune during the period which it was acquired by the national Cox Communications chain. He left Cox in 1980, to serve as public relations director for Desert Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center (now Banner) and, finally, as director of corporate communications for Samaritan Health Service. He launched the now 33-year-old Wrangler News and eight other similar community-focused publications in 1991.

“I look forward to continuing a vibrant, energetic journalism career with INI,” Kirkland said.

Readers will get the best of both worlds with the first publication of each month, following the traditional Tempe Independent format and the second publication resembling the Wrangler News format.

“Don and I agreed the newspaper will become the Wrangler News Independent,” Bisson explained. “What’s great about INI’s business model is our clean delivery method to the mailbox in 90 percent of our communities. Our newspapers aren’t piling up on driveways, and they’re protected by the mailbox most often folded neatly by the USPS mail carriers.”

Brent Cruikshank, the publisher of the North Valley group, which includes Fountain Hills, Scottsdale, and Town of Paradise Valley, looks forward to the added value advertisers will receive in the North and East Valley.  

“Since the acquisition to INI, we’ve grown our print and digital subscriptions 15%,” Cruikshank said. “Our company name reflects our nonpartisan news values while keeping the tradition of the Cruikshank family in Fountain Hills, where we recently celebrated 50 years in business.”

Bisson looks forward to new growth.

“The Independent is committed to expanding throughout the Phoenix market, so there are no news deserts in our Arizona cities and towns,” Bisson explained.

Independent Newsmedia has been publishing in Arizona since 1970.

The company opened two newspapers during the pandemic – Florence and Mesa – and expanded its Scottsdale circulation October 2022. The Arizona group launched the Tempe Independent in April 2022, then acquired JG Media National’s Phoenix operations, which included Community Impact of Chandler, Gilbert and Tempe in July 2022.

Independent Newsmedia owns Valley Newspapers, a state-of-the-art commercial printing plant that is located near Deer Valley Airport. The company also publishes community newspapers in Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Florida and owns a press in Delaware.

The company is owned by a nonprofit journalistic trust designed to maintain independence. The organization has no owners or shareholders, no dividends are paid, and all after-tax profits are reinvested in its mission of impartial community journalism.