Detroit Free Press

Last updated

Detroit Free Press
On Guard for 193 Years
Detroit Free Press Mitch Albom 9-11 10th anniversary front page Sept 11, 2011.jpg
The September 11, 2011 front page of the Detroit Free Press, with Eric Millikin art and Mitch Albom column about the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Gannett
(Detroit Media Partnership)
PresidentTimothy Gruber
EditorNicole Avery Nichols [1]
Founded1831
Headquarters160 W. Fort St.
Detroit, Michigan 48226
United States
Circulation
  • 53,080 daily
  • 103,606 Sunday
(as of Q3 2022) [2] [3]
ISSN 1055-2758
OCLC number 137343179
Website www.freep.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Detroit Free Press (commonly referred to as the Freep) is a major daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest local newspaper owned by Gannett (the publisher of USA Today ), and is operated by the Detroit Media Partnership under a joint operating agreement with The Detroit News, its historical rival. The Sunday edition is titled the Sunday Free Press.

Contents

The Free Press has received ten Pulitzer Prizes [4] and four Emmy Awards. [5] Its motto is "On Guard for 193 Years". In 2018, the Detroit Free Press received two Salute to Excellence awards from the National Association of Black Journalists. [6]

History

1831–1989: Competitive newspaper

The newspaper was launched by John R. Williams and his uncle, Joseph Campau, and was first published as the Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer on May 5, 1831. [7] It was renamed to Detroit Daily Free Press in 1835, becoming the region's first daily newspaper. [8] Williams printed the first issues on a Washington press he purchased from the discontinued Oakland Chronicle of Pontiac. It was hauled from Pontiac in a wagon over rough roads to a building at Bates and Woodbridge streets in Detroit. The hand-operated press required two men and could produce 250 pages per hour. The first issues were 14 by 20 inches (360 mm × 510 mm) in size, with five columns of type. Sheldon McKnight became the first publisher, with his uncle John Pitts Sheldon as the editor.

In the 1850s, the paper was developed into a leading Democratic Party-aligned publication under the ownership of Wilbur F. Storey. Storey left for the Chicago Times in 1861, taking much of the staff with him. [9] In the 1870s ownership passed to William E. Quinby, who continued its Democratic leanings and established a London, England edition. [8]

In 1940, the Knight Newspapers (later Knight Ridder) purchased the Free Press. During the next 20 years, the Free Press competed in the southeastern Michigan market with The Detroit News and the Detroit Times , until the Times was purchased and closed by the Detroit News on November 7, 1960. The Free Press was delivered and sold as a night paper, with home deliveries made after 7:00 pm until around 1966. A morning "Blue Streak Edition" was available at news stands beginning around 1965, meaning the Free Press actually printed two editions per day. During that period The Detroit News was sold and delivered as an afternoon newspaper.

1989–present: Joint operating agreement

In 1989, the paper entered into a one hundred-year joint operating agreement with its rival, combining business operations while maintaining separate editorial staffs. The combined company is called the Detroit Media Partnership. The two papers also began to publish joint Saturday and Sunday editions, though the editorial content of each remained separate. At the time, the Detroit Free Press was the tenth-highest circulation paper in the United States, and the combined Detroit News and Free Press was the country's fourth-largest Sunday paper.

On July 13, 1995, Newspaper Guild-represented employees of the Free Press and News and the pressmen, printers and Teamsters working for the "Detroit Newspapers" distribution arm went on strike. By October, about 40% of the editorial staffers had crossed the picket line, and many trickled back over the next months while others stayed out for the two and a half years of the strike. The strike was resolved in court three years later, and the unions remain active at the paper, representing a majority of the employees under their jurisdiction.

Free Press offices 1998-2014 News Free Press Building.JPG
Free Press offices 1998–2014

In 1998, the Free Press vacated its former headquarters in downtown Detroit and moved to offices into The Detroit News' building and began to operate from its new offices in that building on June 26 of that year. [10]

On August 3, 2005, Knight Ridder sold the Free Press to the Gannett Company, which had previously owned and operated The Detroit News. Gannett, in turn, sold The News to MediaNews Group; Gannett continues to be the managing partner in the papers' joint operating agreement. [11] [12]

The Free Press resumed publication of its own Sunday edition, May 7, 2006, without any content from The News, other than that The News would print its editorial page in the Sunday Free Press. [13]

Home of the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News offices since October 2014 FederalReserveBankDetroit.jpg
Home of the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News offices since October 2014

On December 16, 2008, Detroit Media Partnership (DMP) announced a plan to limit weekday home delivery for both dailies to Thursday and Friday only. On other weekdays the paper sold at newsstands would be smaller, about 32 pages, and redesigned. This arrangement went into effect March 30, 2009. [14]

The Free Press entered a news partnership with CBS owned-and-operated station WWJ-TV channel 62 in March 2009 to produce a morning news show called First Forecast Mornings. Prior to the partnership, WWJ aired absolutely no local newscast at all. [15]

In February 2014, the DMP announced its offices along with those of the Free Press and The Detroit News would occupy six floors in both the old and new sections of the former Federal Reserve building at 160 West Fort Street. The partnership expected to place signs on the exterior similar to those on the former offices. [16] [17] The move took place beginning in October 2014. [18]

Ownership changes

In June 2015, Gannett split itself into two companies. The company's television broadcasters and digital publishers became part of a new company known as Tegna Inc. while its traditional print publishers became part of a new Gannett. [19]

In November 2019, the newspaper announced it would cut four staff positions ahead of the GateHouse Media conglomerate completing its purchase of Gannett. The Gannett board finalized the purchase agreement on November 19, 2019. [20] [21]

Other Free Press publications

Notable people

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>USA Today</i> American national daily newspaper

USA Today is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virginia. Its newspaper is printed at 37 sites across the United States and at five additional sites internationally. The paper's dynamic design influenced the style of local, regional, and national newspapers worldwide through its use of concise reports, colorized images, informational graphics, and inclusion of popular culture stories, among other distinct features.

<i>The Tennessean</i> Daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee

The Tennessean is a daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett, which also owns several smaller community newspapers in Middle Tennessee, including The Dickson Herald, the Gallatin News-Examiner, the Hendersonville Star-News, the Fairview Observer, and the Ashland City Times. Its circulation area overlaps those of the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle and The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro, two other independent Gannett papers. The company publishes several specialty publications, including Nashville Lifestyles magazine.

Gannett Co., Inc. is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation.

<i>The Detroit News</i> Major newspaper in Detroit, Michigan

The Detroit News is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival Detroit Free Press's building. The News absorbed the Detroit Tribune on February 1, 1919, the Detroit Journal on July 21, 1922, and on November 7, 1960, it bought and closed the faltering Detroit Times. However, it retained the Times building, which it used as a printing plant until 1975, when a new facility opened in Sterling Heights. The Times building was demolished in 1978. The street in downtown Detroit where the Times building once stood is still called "Times Square." The Evening News Association, owner of The News, merged with Gannett in 1985.

WWJ-TV is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network via its CBS News and Stations division, alongside WKBD-TV, an affiliate of The CW. The two outlets share studios on Eleven Mile Road in the Detroit suburb of Southfield; WWJ-TV's transmitter is located in Oak Park, Michigan.

<i>The Flint Journal</i> American newspaper

The Flint Journal is a quad-weekly newspaper based in Flint, Michigan, owned by Booth Newspapers, a subsidiary of Advance Publications. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, it serves Genesee, Lapeer and Shiawassee Counties. As of February 2, 2012, it is headquartered in Downtown Flint at 540 S Saginaw St, Suite 504. The paper and its sister publications The Saginaw News and The Bay City Times are printed at the Booth-owned Valley Publishing Co. printing plant in Monitor Township.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WWJ (AM)</span> Radio station in Detroit, Michigan

WWJ is a commercial AM radio station licensed to serve Detroit, Michigan, featuring an all-news radio format known as WWJ Newsradio 950. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services Metro Detroit, is the market affiliate for CBS News Radio, and the flagship station for the Michigan Sports Network. Operating on a regional broadcast frequency, its studios are in the Panasonic Building in Southfield.

The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 was an Act of the United States Congress, signed by President Richard Nixon, authorizing the formation of joint operating agreements among competing newspaper operations within the same media market area. It exempted newspapers from certain provisions of antitrust laws. Its drafters argued that this would allow the survival of multiple daily newspapers in a given urban market where circulation was declining. This exemption stemmed from the observation that the alternative is usually for at least one of the newspapers, generally the one published in the evening, to cease operations altogether.

Six different newspapers called the Detroit Times have been published in the city of Detroit; the most recent existed for six decades, from 1900 to 1960.

The Lansing State Journal is a daily newspaper published in Lansing, Michigan, owned by Gannett. It is the sole daily newspaper published in Greater Lansing.

<i>The Charlotte Observer</i> American newspaper in North Carolina

The Charlotte Observer is an American newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina, and its metro area. The Observer was founded in 1886. As of 2020, it has the second-largest circulation of any newspaper in the Carolinas. It is owned by Chatham Asset Management.

The Athens Banner-Herald is a daily newspaper in Athens, Georgia, USA, and owned by Gannett. The paper has a Sunday special and publishes online under the name Online Athens. It has been through a series of restructurings and mergers since 2000, culminating in its sale, along with several other papers, by Morris Communications to Gatehouse Media in August 2017. Since the merger of GateHouse Media and Gannett in November 2019, The Athens Banner-Herald is now owned by Gannett.

<i>Evansville Courier & Press</i> Daily newspaper published in Evansville, Indiana

The Evansville Courier & Press is a daily newspaper based in Evansville, Indiana. It serves about 30,000 daily and 50,000 Sunday readers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Detroit Media Partnership</span> Newspaper company based in Detroit, United States

Detroit Media Partnership, L.P. manages the business operations - including production, advertising and circulation - for the two leading Detroit newspapers: The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. Detroit Media Partnership also handles Detroit-area circulation for The New York Times, USA Today, Investor's Business Daily, and Financial Times.

<i>Cape Cod Times</i> Daily newspaper in Hyannis, Massachusetts

The Cape Cod Times is a broadsheet daily newspaper serving Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, which encompasses 15 towns on Cape Cod with a year-round population of about 230,000 and a circulation of about 20,000. It is owned by Gannett.

<i>The Sheboygan Press</i> Daily newspaper in Sheboygan, Wisconsin

The Sheboygan Press is a daily newspaper based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, United States. It is one of a number of newspapers in the state of Wisconsin owned by Gannett, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Green Bay Press-Gazette and Appleton's The Post-Crescent, along with the nearby Herald Times Reporter of Manitowoc. The Sheboygan Press is primarily distributed in Sheboygan County.

<i>Alamogordo Daily News</i>

Alamogordo Daily News, founded in 1898, is a daily newspaper published in Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States. It carries local news as well as syndicated content from Associated Press and others.

<i>Public Opinion</i> (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) Newspaper

The Public Opinion is a morning newspaper that is published seven days per week. It is located in the Greater Chambersburg area and serves readers in Franklin, Cumberland and Fulton counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Detroit newspaper strike of 1995–1997</span> Michigan labor action

The Detroit Newspaper Strike was a major labor dispute which began in Detroit, Michigan on July 13, 1995, and involved several actions including a local boycott, corporate campaign, and legal charges of unfair labor practices. The primary action involved around 2,500 members of six labor unions going on strike from July 13, 1995, to February 14, 1997. The unions ended their strike on February 14, 1997, and it was resolved in court three years later, with the journalists' union losing its unfair labor practices case on appeal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Henderson (journalist)</span> American journalist (born 1970)

Stephen Henderson is an American journalist. Henderson won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for commentary and the 2014 National Association of Black Journalists Journalist of the Year Award while writing for the Detroit Free Press.

References

  1. ↑ "Nicole Avery Nichols named new editor of the Detroit Free Press". Detroit Free Press. May 3, 2023.
  2. ↑ Gannett. "Form 10-K". Securities & Exchange Commission. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
  3. ↑ Benton, Joshua (March 9, 2023). "The scale of local news destruction in Gannett's markets is astonishing". Nieman Lab.
  4. ↑ Reindl, JC (April 14, 2014). "Free Press' Stephen Henderson wins 2014 Pulitzer Prize for commentary". Detroit Free Press. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Detroit Free Press wins 4th Emmy Award for Christ Child House". Detroit Free Press. Michigan Federation for Children and Families. September 22, 2009. Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  6. ↑ "2018 Salute to Excellence Winners". National Association of Black Journalists. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Oakland County". Michigan Newspaper History. 2009.
  8. 1 2 "Detroit Free Press". Detroit Historical Society. Retrieved August 25, 2017.
  9. ↑ Willard Grosvenor Bleyer (1936). "Storey, Wilbur Fisk". Dictionary of American Biography . New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
  10. ↑ Grimm, Joe. "600 W. Fort: Built for newspapering". Detroit Free Press. Archived from the original on August 19, 1999. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  11. ↑ Seelye, Katharine Q. (August 4, 2005). "2 Huge Publishing Chains Swap Newspapers". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  12. ↑ "Detroit papers change hands in 3-company deal". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Detroit News, The | Detroit Historical Society". detroithistorical.org. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  14. ↑ Pérez-Peña, Richard; Mary Chapman (March 31, 2009). "Detroit's Daily Papers Are Now Not So Daily". The New York Times . Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  15. ↑ Marcucci, Carl (March 29, 2009). "Free Press will join WWJ-TV for reports". Radio + Television Business Report.com. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
  16. ↑ Zaniewski, Ann; Gallagher, John (February 20, 2014). "Free Press, News moving to new home in core of downtown Detroit". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
  17. ↑ Aguilar, Louis (April 23, 2014). "Detroit News, Free Press, DMP will occupy 6 floors in old Federal Reserve building". The Detroit News. Archived from the original on April 25, 2014. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
  18. ↑ Rubin, Neil (October 24, 2014). "News moving out, leaving century of memories behind". The Detroit News. Retrieved October 27, 2014.
  19. ↑ Reindl, JC (June 29, 2015). "Gannett, owner of Detroit Free Press, splits into two". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  20. ↑ Ikonomova, Violet (November 13, 2019). "Layoffs Planned At Detroit Free Press Ahead Of Sale To Hedge Fund-Backed Group". Deadline Detroit.com. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  21. ↑ Bomey, Nathan (November 19, 2019). "CEOs of new Gannett: 'Pivot' needed for digital transformation as merger is completed". USA Today . Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  22. ↑ "Veteran Detroit-Area Sportswriter Jack Berry Named Recipient of PGA Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award - The Golf Wire". The Golf Wire. February 15, 2007. Retrieved January 1, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.