Background In 1986,
The Detroit News and the
Detroit Free Press, longtime rival daily newspapers in
Detroit, Michigan, announced plans to enter into a
joint operating agreement and merge their operations. At the time,
The Detroit News, recently purchased by
Gannett, was the larger and more successful of the two newspapers, with an average daily circulation of 645,000; the
Free Press, owned by
Knight-Ridder, had a slightly smaller circulation of 634,000. The joint operating agreement was intended to preserve the distinct editorial positions of the two papers: historically, the
Free Press was generally considered editorially
liberal, while
The Detroit News was regarded as more
conservative.
Antitrust case The proposed operational merger of Detroit's two dominant newspapers was the subject of
antitrust concerns. Under the
Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, newspapers seeking to form joint operating agreements could be granted exemptions from federal antitrust law if it could be proven that one of the newspapers involved was otherwise likely to fail. In a July 1986 report, the U.S. Department of Justice's
Antitrust Division recommended to Attorney General
Edwin Meese that hearings on the proposed agreement be held before an
administrative law judge. Hearings were held in 1987.
Ernst & Whinney audited the
Free Press's finances, concluding that it was unlikely to become profitable independently. Unions representing workers at both publications opposed the agreement, as did then-Detroit mayor
Coleman Young. and asserting that neither paper qualified for the antitrust exemption
. An appeals court upheld Meese's decision in January 1989, as did a 4-4 tie vote of the
Supreme Court on November 13, 1989.
Joint operations Following the Supreme Court decision, the newspapers entered into the agreement, combining their business operations into the
Detroit Newspaper Agency on November 27, 1989. Under the terms of the initial agreement, Gannett and Knight-Ridder retained ownership of their respective newspapers, and split the Agency's profits. Gannett controlled three of the five seats on the Detroit Newspaper Agency's board of directors, In 1989, the
Detroit Free Press was the 10th-highest-circulation paper in the
United States, and the combined
Detroit News and Free Press was the country's fourth-largest Sunday paper.
Strike From July 1995 to February 1997, unionized staffers of the Detroit Newspaper Agency went on a prolonged
strike.
The New York Times described the strike as "the last great newspaper strike of the 20th century."
Restructuring and Gannett ownership On August 3, 2005, Gannett acquired the
Free Press from Knight Ridder for $262 million, and sold the
Detroit News to
MediaNews Group for $25 million. Gannett also purchased Knight Ridder's ownership stake in the Detroit Newspaper Agency, which was restructured and renamed Detroit Newspaper Partnership, LP. Gannett retained a 95% ownership stake and operational control as the primary partner. The joint
Detroit News and Free Press on weekends was discontinued on April 30, 2006. Beginning in May 2006, the two newspapers began to publish independent Saturday editions, while the
Free Press took over the
Sunday edition entirely, producing the
Sunday Free Press with a page of featured editorial content from
The Detroit News. The joint venture was renamed Detroit Media Partnership in April 2007. In March 2009, the Detroit Media Partnership scaled back its daily home delivery of both publications to three days per week, eliminating delivery of the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday print editions. Dave Hunke, then-CEO of the partnership, stated that more than 80% of its advertising revenue was sourced from the Thursday, Friday, and Sunday editions. Until 2009, the Detroit Media Partnership also served as the local distributor of
The New York Times, ''
The Wall Street Journal,
USA Today,
Investor's Business Daily, and
Financial Times.'' In July 2010, Gannett introduced the website
Michigan.com, which aggregated news from the
Detroit News and the
Free Press, along with other Gannett newspapers in Michigan, such as the
Lansing State Journal. The Detroit Media Partnership adopted the Michigan.com brand for
business-to-business marketing in October 2014. In October 2014, the offices of both newspapers and the Partnership moved from the Detroit News Complex, which the
Detroit News had occupied since 1917, to the then-newly reopened former
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Detroit Branch Building. The Detroit News Complex was sold to Bedrock Real Estate, the former Federal Reserve building's owner. and announced in January 2025 that it would close. The plant, which was opened by
The Detroit News in 1975
, printed 32 newspapers at the time of its closure. It closed on August 3, 2025, resulting in
layoffs of more than 100 employees. Beginning with the August 5, 2025 editions of the
Detroit News and
Free Press, both have been printed at a Gannett plant in
Canton, Ohio. The two papers' newsrooms separately moved out of the Federal Reserve Building in December 2024: the
Free Press moved to a nearby
WeWork coworking space, and the
News relocated to an office in the
New Center district. In June 2025, both newspapers announced that the joint operating agreement would not be renewed, and that the two would separate following the publication of the December 28, 2025 issue of the
Free Press, dissolving the Detroit Media Partnership. MediaNews Group planned to fully assume its operations by the end of January, introducing a Sunday edition on January 18, 2026, and a redesigned print edition and website. == Notes ==