Detroit Freep and News End JOA
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The 100 year Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) between The Detroit Free Press (Freep) and The Detroit News, begun in 1989, will come to an end after 36 years with the close of 2025.
From The Detroit Free Press (by former Gil Thorp writer Neal Rubin):
The joint operating agreement that helped sustain two daily newspapers in Detroit will be dissolved at the beginning of 2026, turning the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News loose in a world and industry far different than the ones that existed when last they were independent businesses.
The Free Press’ owner, Gannett, made the announcement on Monday, June 16.
“The joint operating agreement between the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News is set to expire at the end of this year, and the partnership will not be renewed.”
The Free Press acknowledged that the 1989 JOA saved the newspaper:
The Free Press and News combined their business operations Nov. 27, 1989, after a 3 ½-year legal bobsled ride ended with a tie vote in the U.S. Supreme Court. The 4-4 split likely kept the Free Press, founded in 1831, from closing its doors.
While the two newsrooms have remained separate and rabidly competitive, the joint operating agreement (JOA) allowed the papers to save money by combining such functions as selling advertising, maintaining printing presses, and distributing newspapers to doorsteps and drugstores in an increasingly digital age.
The Detroit News informed its readers:
That [JOA] partnership, most recently renewed in 2005 with a 20-year term, is set to expire following publication of the Dec. 28 print edition.
In 2005, Gannett sold The News to MediaNews Group and purchased the Free Press, giving the JOA a 20-year term, which expires on the last Sunday of December.
Times have changed and the end of the JOA may put The Detroit News on the endangered list, though News management remain defiantly optimistic. From Sam Robinson at Detroit One Million:
My conversation with fellow Midlander and Detroit News publisher Gary Miles at the annual Society of Professional Journalists banquet earlier this year revealed News leaders are confident in their ability to remain viable. Miles touted the News’ growing digital subscriber base, crediting the paper’s award-winning journalism.
On social media, Detroit News managing editor Kevin Hardy answered my question of whether the city could soon lose one of its papers as a result of the expiring agreement, responding simply, “No.”
Though as Allen Lengel at Deadline Detroit reports Freep employees are on edge:
People in the Detroit Free Press newsroom were stunned and concerned about the future of the paper.
The Detroit News reports that the move will allow it to operate closer with its sister papers in Detroit’s suburbs, including The Oakland Press, the (Royal Oak) Daily Tribune, the Macomb Daily, the (Southgate) News-Herald, and others.
> “Gannett now owns more than 150 newspapers nationwide [including The Detroit Free Press] and more than a dozen in Michigan, from Sturgis to Sault Ste. Marie” – Neal Rubin <
“Together, we’re uniquely positioned to provide coverage of Metro Detroit like no single news organization can,” said Gary Miles, editor and publisher of The News. “That’s good for readers and advertisers as well.”
The article continues explaining the danger ahead for The News:
Lou Mleczko, former administrative officer and president of the Detroit Newspaper Guild, which represents both publications, says he’s very worried about the future of the two papers.
“Even if somehow the Detroit News limps along with the MediaNews Group, that doesn’t mean the Free press is going to thrive.”
He also expressed skepiticism about MediaNews Group’s commitment to The News.
“The Detroit News today is so diminished and the current owner, MediaNews, is not a friend of journalism,” Mleczko said. “Let’s be clear about that. They are bottom feeders bleeding whatever money they can get out of a property before they move on.”
Neal Rubin’ Freep article tells us only one JOA will remain:
Of 28 JOAs approved since the passage of the Newspaper Preservation Act by Congress in 1970, only the one in Las Vegas will remain as of the new year. There, the Las Vegas Sun appears as an insert in the daily Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The last I knew Sun is a four page (a full sheet) broadsheet-sized insert in The Review-Journal.
As for cartoons and comics.
Cartoonist Henry Payne is on staff at The Detroit News as auto critic,his cartoons regularly appear there.
As reported here earlier this year The Detroit Free Press is the only Gannett newspaper that does not adhere to The Gannett 34 comics page rule. The end of the JOA will probably bring The Freep in line with the rest of the group putting a number of non-Gannett 34 comic strips in limbo (will The News run them?).
feature image from 1969 Old Newsboys’ Goodfellow Fund, artist unknown
Grant
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