Detroit Free Press
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| Image:Detroit Free Press Logo.svg | |
|---|---|
| Type | Daily newspaper |
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Gannett Company |
| Founded | 1831 |
| Headquarters | 600 W. Fort Street Detroit, MI 48226-3138 United States |
| | |
| Website: www.freep.com | |
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep".
The Free Press is owned by Gannett and is the larger of Metro Detroit's two major dailies (the other being the The Detroit News) and has received eight Pulitzer Prizes. Editorially, the Free Press is considered to be more liberal than The Detroit News.
[edit] History
The newspaper was first published as the Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer on May 5, 1831. In 1940 it was sold to the Knight Newspapers (later Knight Ridder) chain.
In 1987, the paper entered into a 100-year joint operating agreement with its rival, combining business operations while maintaining separate editorial staffs. The combined company is called the Detroit Newspaper Agency. 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 10th highest circulation paper in the U.S., 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. A handful of staffers crossed the picket line after a month, including Mitch Albom, but the majority 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.
In 1998, the Free Press vacated its former headquarters in downtown Detroit and moved to offices inside the News building.
On August 3, 2005, Knight Ridder sold the Free Press to the Gannett company, which had previously owned and operated the News. The News, in turn, was sold to MediaNews Group; Gannett continues to be the managing partner in the papers' joint operating agreement.
On May 7, 2006, the Free Press resumed publication of its own Sunday edition, without any content from the News. A quirk in the operating agreement, however, allows the News to continue printing its editorial page in the Sunday Free Press.
