Southern Arizona's alternative newsweekly marks two decades with a special issue, new design

The Tucson Weekly, Southern Arizona’s popular alternative newsweekly, is turning 20 years old—and the Weekly is celebrating in a big way.

On March 4, the Weekly will launch a major redesign, the first in nearly a decade. In addition to the new look, making it one of the coolest-designed alternative newsweeklies in the country, the newspaper will be debuting a number of new features.

“We’ve all been working on this redesign since last summer,” said Jimmy Boegle, the Weekly’s editor. “It came out extremely well, and we’re as excited as hell.”

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the paper, the Weekly is dedicating more than 20 extra pages of the March 4 issue to look back at the last two decades of politics, arts, films, restaurants, sports and music in Southern Arizona.

The new design was spearheaded by Katherine Topaz, of Portland, Ore.-based Topaz Design. Topaz is consistently recognized as one of the top designers in the alternative newsweekly world. The Weekly’s new look is cleaner, easier to read and much more modern. The new Weekly will also be a slightly smaller size, making it easier to hold and read.

The new weekly features will include a humorous news recap, The Range, being penned by senior writer Jim Nintzel, and a guest commentary that will feature pieces from a wide variety of Tucson writers.

But the biggest change in the newspaper is coming in the Music section. The Weekly is adding Live, a concert review; Nine Questions, a music Q&A with a local luminary; Rhythm & Views, a regular section of CD reviews; and longer, better-organized music listings, arranged by both date and venue.

“This corresponds to our efforts to make the Weekly as locally focused as possible,” said Boegle. “We are an alternative paper, and that means we cover things in Tucson that aren’t being covered adequately in other media sources. Our new Music section illustrates that.”

The Weekly first hit the streets on Feb. 22, 1984, thanks to the efforts of founders Doug Biggers and Mark Goehring. In 2000, Biggers sold the paper to Sierra Vista-based Wick Communications. Since its debut as a 12-page paper focused on arts and entertainment news, the Weekly has steadily increased in size and focus, growing to become one of the country’s most-respected alternative newsweeklies.

CONTACT: Jimmy Boegle, (520) 295-4221; jboegle@tucsonweekly.com