Remembering my friend, L. Alan Cruikshank

Jan 1, 2023

Community newspapers lost a great champion with the passing of Alan Cruikshank.

As founder and president of the Fountain Hills (Arizona) Times, Alan was a pioneer in local news and information.

He was the first to our knowledge to launch a daily local news broadcast from his office. And he and his family did it before the evening TV news came on.

He also was the only newspaper publisher we knew who published the local telephone directory in his community.

Both provided added revenue to support his news operations.

Alan was generous with his time and expertise.

My wife, MacLeod, and I spend several hours with him in Fountain Hills, picking his brains for what had worked for him and his people.

Alan was an example for many of what a community newspaper editor and publisher could mean to his readers, advertisers and publishing colleagues.

—Jerry Bellune, writing coach, author and retired publisher of the Lexington (South Carolina) Chronicle

Editor's note: Read Cruikshank's obituary from the Fountain Hills Times here