Along with the Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press is one of the two major metro Detroit newspapers. It is owned by Knight Ridder. A winner of eight Pulitzer Prizes, the Free Press is considered, editorially, to be the more politically liberal of Detroit's two major dailies.
It was first published as the Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer on May 5, 1831. In 1989, the paper entered into a 100-year joint operating agreement with its rival, combining business operations while maintaining separate editoral staffs. 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 Free Press-News was the country's fourth-biggest Sunday paper.
The Free Press moved into its own offices in the Detroit News building in 1998.
In 1995, employees of the Free Press and News went on strike, though most of the journalists -- including such big-name writers as Mitch Albom and Susan Ager -- returned to work within several weeks. The strike was resolved in court two years later, and the paper now operates as an open shop.
Known for decades to Detroiters as "the Freep," the paper's website is www.freep.com.
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