The October 27, 2010 front page of the Chattanooga Times Free Press |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | WEHCO Media, Inc. |
| Editor | Alison Gerber |
| Founded | Times: 1869 Free Press: 1933 Times Free Press: 1999 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | 400 East 11th Street Chattanooga, Tennessee 37403 United States |
| Official website | timesfreepress.com |
The Chattanooga Times Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metro Chattanooga region of Tennessee and Northwest Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's major newspapers.
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The Chattanooga Times was first published on December 15, 1869 by the firm Kirby & Gamble.
Nine years later, in 1878, 20-year-old Adolph Ochs borrowed money and bought half interest in the struggling morning paper. Two years later when he assumed full ownership, it cost him $5,500.
In 1892, the paper's staff moved to the Ochs Building on Georgia Avenue at East Eighth Street, which is now the Dome Building.
Ochs turned the paper over to his brother-in-law Harry C. Adler In 1896 and moved to New York where he bought The New York Times (circulation 20,000). Still, Ochs remained publisher of the Chattanooga Times.
Ochs' slogan, "To give the news impartially, without fear or favor" is still the newspaper's slogan today. The Times was controlled by Ochs' descendants until 1999.
In 1933, Roy Ketner McDonald launched a free Thursday tabloid, delivered door to door, featuring stories, comics, and advertisements for his stores.
Three years later circulation had hit 65,000 per week, making some ad revenue. On August 31 the paper began publishing as an evening daily with paid subscriptions.
One year later, the Free Press circulation reached 33,000, within reach of another p.m. competitor, the Chattanooga News (circulation 35,000).
McDonald bought the Chattanooga News from owner George Fort Milton in December 1939. Out of respect for Milton, McDonald put the News first in the merged name "News-Free Press". The journalism school handbook The Elements of Style noted that the hyphen made it sound "as though the paper were news-free, or devoid of news."
By 1941, News-Free Press daily circulation reached 51,600, surpassing the Times (50,078).
In heated competition, the Times began a p.m. competitor, the Chattanooga Evening Times. Just one year later, however, both competing newspapers joined business and production operations, while maintaining separate news and editorial departments. The Times ceased publishing in the evening and the News-Free Press dropped its Sunday edition. The two shared offices at 117 E. 10th St.
Twenty-four years later, McDonald wanted out. He bought the Davenport Hosiery Mills building at 400 E. 11th St. in 1966 and competition brewed once more. The News-Free Press is the only paper in the nation to dissolve a joint operating agreement. That August, the day after the News-Free Press resumed Sunday publication, the Times responded with an evening newspaper: the Chattanooga Post. The following year, the Post ceased publication.
The News-Free Press gave Chattanooga its first full-color newspaper photos.
Each newspaper won a single Pulitzer Prize.
In 1956, Charles L. Bartlett of the Washington Bureau of The Chattanooga Times won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, for articles leading to the resignation of the secretary of the Air Force.[1][2][3]
In 1977, staff photographer Robin Hood of the Chattanooga News-Free Press received the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography. The photo was of legless Vietnam veteran Eddie Robinson in his wheelchair watching a rained-out parade in Chattanooga with his tiny son on his lap.[4][5]
When business soured for the News-Free Press, 14 employees mortgaged their homes to help keep the newspaper afloat.
In the late 1970s, Walter E. Hussman, Jr., the 31-year-old publisher of the Arkansas Democrat, approached McDonald for counsel regarding a bitter struggle with the Arkansas Gazette.
In 1990, after leading the paper for 54 years, McDonald died at age 88. Three years later, the paper returned to its original name: the Chattanooga Free Press.
In 1999 Hussman bought and merged the Chattanooga Times and the Chattanooga News-Free Press, creating the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The merged newspaper is owned by WEHCO Media, Inc.[6] The Times Free Press is most unusual among U.S. newspapers in that it runs two editorial pages, one staunchly liberal, the other staunchly conservative, reflecting the editorial leanings of the previous standalone Times and Free Press.
The Tennessee Press Association recognized the Times Free Press as the best newspaper in Tennessee by 2002. One year later, Editor and Publisher magazine named the Times Free Press as one of 10 newspapers in the United States “doing it right". [7]
The newspaper has subscribers in Chattanooga, Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia.
When the Chattanooga Times Free Press launched its website in 2004, the site was only accessible to paid subscribers and featured only a handful of section pages and links.[8]
Four years later, in early 2008, the redesigned online presence of timesfreepress.com debuted, with an emphasis on breaking news, video and multimedia. The site features all local content in the paper, an online edition of the news product, and classified ads, as well.
In late 2010 the newspaper launched '"Right 2 Know", an online database of police mugshots, salaries of government employees, and a map of shootings in Hamilton County.
The Times Free Press is also responsible for several other niche publications:
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