The Star is in a joint operating agreement with the Tucson Citizen, a smaller paper owned by Gannett. The two newspapers, under TNI Partners, share business and production operations but maintain separate newsrooms and editorial staffs. The newspaper was sold in 2005 by Pulitzer, Inc. to Lee Enterprises.
In 1981, Star reporters Clark Hallas and Robert B. Lowe won a Pulitzer Prize for their stories about recruiting violations by University of Arizona football coach Tony Mason.