Chattanooga Times The
Chattanooga Times was first published on December 15, 1869, by the firm Kirby & Gamble. 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. In 1896, Ochs entrusted the management of the paper to his brother-in-law Harry C. Adler when he purchased
The New York Times (circulation 20,000). Ochs remained publisher of the
Chattanooga Times. Ochs' slogan, "To give the news impartially, without fear or favor" remains affixed atop the paper's mast today. The
Times was controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family 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 acquired
The Chattanooga News from George Fort Milton Jr. in December 1939, when the majority bondholders of the
News, specifically Milton's step-mother Abby Crawford Milton, and her three children, acted on a technical missed payment deadline of bond payment obligations—allowing them to foreclose on the paper. Despite heroic sacrifice and fundraising by George Fort Milton and his employees, payments to the creditors were rejected as they had already agreed to sell the paper to Roy McDonald, publisher of the rival
Free Press, for $150,000. McDonald then appropriated the
News name to prevent Milton from using it, and the
Free Press became the
News-Free Press. In their guide to writing,
The Elements of Style,
William Strunk and
E. B. White used the paper as an illustration of comically misleading punctuation, noting 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, with 50,078. In competition, the Times began an evening newspaper competitor, the
Chattanooga Evening Times. One year later, however, the 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 withdrew from the agreement. He bought the Davenport Hosiery Mills building at 400 E. 11th St. in 1966, and competition resumed between the two papers. The
News-Free Press was the first 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. 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 declined 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 1980, the
Times and the
News-Free Press entered into a new joint operating agreement.
Chattanooga Times Free Press In 1998, Hussman bought the
Free Press. A year later, he bought the
Times as well and merged the two papers. The first edition of the
Chattanooga Times Free Press was published on January 5, 1999. The
Times Free Press runs two
editorial pages: one staunchly
liberal, the other staunchly
conservative, reflecting the editorial leanings of the
Times and
Free Press, respectively. The Tennessee Press Association recognized the
Times Free Press as the best newspaper in Tennessee in 2002. One year later,
Editor & Publisher magazine named the
Times Free Press as one of 10 newspapers in the United States "doing it right". In May 2013, the paper bought a new
offset printing press to replace its
flexography printing press. The multimillion-dollar investment added more color capability and production efficiency. On Monday, April 14, 2014, the
Chattanooga Times Free Press was named a finalist for the 2014
Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for "Speak No Evil." In 2017, the newspaper was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for "The Poverty Puzzle." In September 2021, the newspaper started offering a free
IPad to all print subscribers as a way to promote the paper's digital replica. The plan was to cease weekday print sometime in mid-2022 and only print once a week on Sundays. In-person tutorials on how to access the paper's digital edition were offered in community recreational centers, hotel conference rooms and at the newsroom. The total investment for the initiative was $6 million. In March 2024, the newspaper sent a letter to readers announcing it had been running at a loss in recent years due in part to the
COVID-19 recession in the United States and was raising subscriptions rates from $34 to $39 a month. ==Website==