Navajo Times

The Navajo Times is a non-daily newspaper. It is written in English. It is written for the Navajo people, a group of Native Americans who live in the southwestern United States. Its mission is to tell Navajo people about events that affect their lives, both in Navajo territory and in the rest of the United States. Its main offices are in Window Rock, Arizona, but it also has another office in Shiprock, New Mexico.
The newspaper is owned by the Navajo Times Publishing Company, Inc., a for-profit corporation. NTPC Inc. belongs to the Navajo people, and the Tribal Council are its caretakers. Tommy Arviso Jr. is President and CEO of NTPC. According to Arviso, the paper earns enough money from selling newspapers and from advertising to pay for its own costs and a little profit. In 2015, Arviso said one of the paper's goals was to become a completely privately owned company with individual Navajo people owning shares.
According to Arviso, the "Navajo Times" does not print "sensational" stories: "We do not prey on the hurt, sadness, pain and sorrow of other humans to increase paper sales."
History.
The "Navajo Times" started as a newsletter in 1959. The Navajo Tribal Council began it. They wanted to be able to talk to people living on Navajo land and people living in other places, for example Navajo students away at school. It became a newspaper the following year, in 1960. At first, it was a monthly newsletter, then weekly. In the early 1960s, the paper covered infrastructure-related stories like health care, education, and economic development. As of 2020, the first few years of the paper are archived in the Arizona Memory Project.
According to Tom Arviso, who became editor of the paper in 1988, there were problems with censorship. Because the paper was run by the government of the Navajo nation, the Navajo leaders believed they should be allowed to say what the paper could and could not print. In 2003, Arviso convinced the Tribal Council to make the paper more independent. They voted 66 to 1 to create the Navajo Times Publishing Company so the paper would be more independent.
Awards.
In 2012, the "Navajo Times" staff won 13 awards from the Arizona Press Club.
In 2015 "Navajo Times" staff won 24 Native Media Awards from the Native American Journalists Association, including awards for photography, sports and writing. They also won Best Layout. The paper changed its layout in 2015.
In 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, the "Navajo Times" won Newspaper of the Year from the Arizona Newspapers Association in the category for non-daily newspapers. It also won awards for its website and advertising.