Chattanooga Times Free Press
Encyclopedia
The Chattanooga Times Free Press is a daily broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...

 newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 published in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, and is distributed in the metro Chattanooga region of Tennessee and Northwest Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's major newspapers.

Chattanooga Times

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
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

 (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.

Chattanooga Free Press

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."

Competition and agreement

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
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

.

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
United States Secretary of the Air Force
The Secretary of the Air Force is the Head of the Department of the Air Force, a component organization within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Secretary of the Air Force is appointed from civilian life by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate...

.

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.

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.
Walter E. Hussman, Jr.
Walter E. Hussman, Jr. , is a third-generation newspaper publisher and chief executive officer of a mass media conglomerate known as WEHCO Media, Inc...

, the 31-year-old publisher of the Arkansas Democrat
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell...

, 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.

Chattanooga Times 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.
WEHCO Media, Inc.
WEHCO Media, Inc., based in Little Rock, is a privately held media company with holdings that include newspapers, cable television systems, and internet service. Walter E. Hussman, Jr. , is the president....


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
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...

, 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".

The newspaper has subscribers in Chattanooga, Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia.

Embrace of technology

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.

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.

Other publications

The Times Free Press is also responsible for several other niche publications:
  • Chatter—A monthly magazine launched in 2008 with feature stories from around the area.
  • Noticias Libres—A free weekly Spanish language paper distributed around the Chattanooga area.
  • Current—A weekend publication distributed in every Friday's Times Free Press. It covers music, movies, dining and arts.

Current and past contributors

  • Charles L. Bartlett, reporter, Washington bureau, The Chattanooga Times, 1946–962. Pulitzer Prize winner for national reporting, 1956, for articles leading to the resignation of the secretary of the Air Force.
  • Clay Bennett
    Clay Bennett
    Clay Bennett is an American editorial cartoonist. Currently drawing for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Bennett is the winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning....

    , Editorial cartoonist, combined papers, 2007–. Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial cartooning in 2002 at The Christian Science Monitor.
  • Bill Dedman
    Bill Dedman
    Bill Dedman, an American journalist, is an investigative reporter for news site msnbc.com and a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting....

    , Copy boy, copy editor, reporter for The Chattanooga News-Free Press and then The Chatanooga Times, 1977–1983. Pulitzer Prize winner, investigative reporting, 1989.
  • J. Todd Foster, editor, combined papers, 2010–. Editor of the Bristol Herald-Courier when it won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for public service.
  • Tom Griscom
    Tom Griscom
    Thomas Cecil "Tom" Griscom was the executive editor and publisher of the Chattanooga Times Free Press in Tennessee, United States from October 1999 to June 30, 2010.-Life and career:...

    , executive editor and publisher, combined papers, 1999–2010.
  • Ruth Holmberg, publisher, The Chattanooga Times. Granddaughter of Adolph Ochs, and mother of author Arthur Golden
    Arthur Golden
    Arthur Golden is an American writer. He is the author of the bestselling novel Memoirs of a Geisha .Golden is a member of the Ochs-Sulzberger family . He was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, grew up on Lookout Mountain, Georgia, and attended Lookout Mountain Elementary School in Lookout Mountain,...

     and Michael Golden, publisher of the International Herald Tribune
    International Herald Tribune
    The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...

    .
  • Robin Hood, photographer, The Chattanooga News-Free Press, 1970s. Pulitzer Prize winner for feature photography, 1977.
  • Roy McDonald, publisher, The Chattanooga Free Press and later The Chattanooga News-Free Press, 1933–1990.
  • Jon Meacham
    Jon Meacham
    Jon Meacham is executive editor and executive vice president at Random House. A former editor of Newsweek and a Pulitzer Prize winning bestselling author and a commentator on politics, history, and religious faith in America, he is a contributing editor to Time magazine and editor-at-large of WNET...

    , reporter, The Chattanooga Times, 1991–1992. Pulitzer Prize winner for biography, 2009.
  • Albert Hodges Morehead
    Albert Hodges Morehead
    Albert Hodges Morehead, Jr. was a writer for The New York Times, a bridge player, a lexicographer, and an author and editor of reference works.-Early years:...

    , reporter, The Chattanooga Times, c. 1930.
  • Alan Murray, reporter, The Chattanooga Times, c. 1977. Assistant managing editor and columnist, The Wall Street Journal
    The Wall Street Journal
    The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

    .
  • Adolph Ochs, publisher, The Chattanooga Times, 1878–1935. Later publisher of The New York Times. Died on a visit to Chattanooga.
  • Julius Ochs Adler
    Julius Ochs Adler
    Julius Ochs Adler was an American publisher, journalist, and United States Army general.-Biography:Adler was born on December 3, 1892, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the son of Harry Clay Adler and Ada Ochs. After graduating from Princeton University in 1914 he was employed by The New York Times...

    , president and publisher, The Chattanooga Times. General manager of The New York Times.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK